Biblical  and 

Oriental  Series 


GROWTH  OF 
RELIGIOUS  ANff 
MORAL  IDEAS 
IN  EGYPT 


MERCER 


BR  45  .B52  v. 3     ^   ^ 
Mercer,  Samuel  A.  B.  b. 

1880. 
Growth  of  religious  and 
moral  ideas  in  Egypt 


Biblical  and  Oriental  Series 

SAMUEL  A.  B.  MERCER,  General  Editor 


GROWTH  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND  MORAL 
IDEAS  IN  EGYPT 


Biblical  and  Oriental  Series 

SAMUEL  A.  B.  MERCER,  General  Editor 

The  object  of  this  Series  on  the  Bible  and 
Oriental  Civilization  is  to  make  the  results  of 
expert  investigation  accessible  to  laymen.  Some- 
times these  results  will  be  presented  in  the  form 
of  daily  readings,  and  sometimes  in  that  of  con- 
tinuous discussion.  Specialists  in  every  case  will 
be  employed,  who  will  endeavor  to  present  their 
subjects  in  the  most  effective  and  profitable  way. 

The  Book  of  Genesis  for  Bible  Classes  and 
Private  Study 
By  Samuel  A.  B.  Mercer  (non>  ready). 

The  Growth  of  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas 
in  Egypt 
By  Samuel  A.  B.  Mercer   (non>  ready). 

The  Book  of  Isaiah  for  Bible  Classes  and 
Private  Study 
By  D.  Roy  Matthews  (in  preparation). 

Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Babylonia  and 
Assyria 
By  Samuel  A.  B.  Mercer  (in  the  press). 


Morehouse  Publishing  Company 


GROWTH  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND 
MORAL  IDEAS  IN  EGYPT 


SAMUEL  A.  B.  MERCER,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  in  the  Western  Theological 

Seminary,  Chicago;    Rector  of  the  Society  of  Oriental 

Research,  and  Editor  of  its  Journal;  Editor 

of  the  Anglican  Theological  Review 


MOREHOUSE  PUBLISHING  CO. 
MILWAUKEE,  WIS. 

A.  R.  MOWBRAY  &  CO. 
LONDON 


COPYRIGHT    BY 

MOREHOUSE  PUBLISHING  CO. 
1919 


TO 

WILLIAM  COPLEY  WINSLOW 

PIONEER  AND   PROMOTER  OF 

EGYPTIAN    ARCHAEOLOGY 

WITH    AFFECTIONATE    REGARD 


PREFACE 

The  magic  of  Egypt's  ancient  past  is  irresistible; 
the  fascination  of  her  present  is  perennial.  Much 
has  been  written  on  the  greatness  and  grandeur  of 
her  mighty  civilization,  but  much  more  remains  to 
be  done  before  it  can  be  said  that  we  comprehend 
her.  There  are  still  great  gaps  in  our  knowledge  of 
her  history;  and  her  art  and  architecture,  though 
assiduously  studied,  are  yet  but  poorly  understood. 
Her  picturesque  script  and  her  strange  religion  still 
bristle  with  unsolved  problems. 

This  little  book,  by  a  student  and  lover  of  Egypt, 
aims  only  at  a  glimpse  of  one  of  the  most  enchanting 
problems  of  Egyptology.  The  religious  and  moral 
ideas  of  ancient  Egypt  yield  to  no  other  problem 
in  human  interest.  How  they  arose,  grew,  and 
developed  is  the  subject  of  this  study. 

The  author  has  assumed  a  certain  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  Egypt  on  the  part  of  the  reader,  but 
he  has  endeavoured  to  make  what  he  has  to  say  as 
readable  for  the  layman  as  possible.  In  order  to 
assist  the  reader  in  forming  an  historical  background 
for  his  study,  the  author  has  prefixed  a  chronological 
outline;  and  to  avoid  overcrowding  the  pages  with 
references  and  footnotes,  he  has  appended  a  selected 

vii 


viii  Preface 

bibliography.  But  be  it  noted,  in  order  to  inspire 
due  confidence  in  our  study,  that  no  assertion  has 
been  made,  and  no  conclusion  has  been  drawn,  which 
cannot  be  thoroughly  substantiated  by  reference  to 
the  original  texts.  So  that  our  study,  while  aiming 
at  a  modern  presentation  of  Egyptian  religious  and 
moral  ideas,  has  never  once  consciously  departed 
from  facts  deducible  from  the  monuments. 

On  account  of  the  limitations  of  our  plan,  much 
detail  has  had  to  be  omitted.  But  this,  it  is  hoped, 
has  permitted  a  clearer  and  more  connected  exposi- 
tion of  the  ideas  of  God  and  Man,  of  Mediation  and 
the  Future,  and  of  Morality,  in  ancient  Egypt,  than 
could  have  been  gained  in  a  more  detailed  study. 

It  only  remains  to  hope  that  this  little  essay  will 
not  merely  call  forth  criticism,  adverse  as  well  as 
favourable,  but  will  also  lead  others  toward  an  in- 
terest in  this  ancient  land  of  rich  culture,  deep 
religious  conceptions,  and  noble  moral  ideals. 

Samuel  A.  B.  Mercer. 

Hibbard  Egyptian  Library, 

Western  Theological  Seminary,  Chicago 

March  20,  1919 


CONTENTS 

I.  Chronological  Outline  of  Egyptian 

History 1 

II.  Introduction 5 

III.    The  Idea  of  God  in  Egypt     ...  10 

IV.    The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt     ...  47 

Y.    The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt     .  58 

VI.    The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt     .  68 

VII.    The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt     .  79 

VIII.    A    Selected   Bibliography     ...  103 

IX.    Index 107 


IX 


I 

CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINE  OF 
EGYPTIAN  HISTORY* 

4500-3400  B.  C.  Historical-predynastic  period. 

3400  "      Union  of  Upper  and  Lower   Egypt  under 

Menes. 
3400-2980       "      First    and    Second    Dynasties.     Capital    at 

Thinis. 

MIDDLE  KINGDOM,  2160-1788  B.  C. 

2980-2900  B.  C.  Third  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Memphis.  The 
terraced  pyramid  of  Sakkara  built  by 
Zoser.    Time  of  the  philosopher  Imhotep. 

2900-2750  "  Fourth  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Memphis. 
Great  pyramid  of  Gizeh  built  by  Khufu. 
Establishment  of  Solar  Theology  by  priests 
of  Heliopolis.     Period  of  great  prosperity. 

2750-2625  "  Fifth  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Memphis. 
Earliest  Pyramid  Texts  from  reign  of  Uni, 
2655-2625. 

2625-2475  "  Sixth  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Memphis.  Be- 
ginning of  feudalism,  and  of  the  decline  of 
the  Old  Kingdom. 

2475-2445  "  Seventh  and  Eighth  Dynasties.  Collapse 
of  Memphis. 


•  Breasted's  chronology  is  followed. 
1 


2  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

2445-2160  B.  C.  Ninth  and  Tenth  Dynasties.  Capital  at 
Heracleopolis.     Rise  of  Thebes. 

MIDDLE   KINGDOM,  2160-1788  B.   C. 

2160-2000  B.  C.  Eleventh  Dynasty.     Capital  at  Thebes. 

2000-1788  "  Twelfth  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Thebes. 
Feudalism  at  its  height.  Period  of  great 
prosperity.  Social  and  Moral  literature, 
such  as,  Ptah-Hotep,  The  Misanthrope, 
Complaint  of  the  Peasant.  Decline  of 
Feudalism,  1849-1801;  and  fall  of  Middle 
Kingdom.   1792-1788. 

1788-1580  "  Thirteenth  to  Seventeenth  Dynasties.  A 
period  of  great  confusion,  of  which  little 
is  known.     Thebes  is  still  the  capital. 

EMPIRE,  1580-1150  B.  C. 

1580-1350  B.  C.  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  Capital  at  Thebes. 
Hyksos  driven  from  Egypt.  Military  state 
organized.  Thutmose  III,  1479-1447,  led 
seventeen  campaigns  in  Asia.  Egypt  be- 
comes a  great  empire.  Theban  Book  of  tne 
Dead.  Height  of  splendour  in  reign  of 
Amenhotep  III,  1411-1375,  and  beginning 
of  period  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  letters. 
Ikhnaton's  reform  in  religion,  1375-1358. 
Thebes  exchanged  for  Akhetaton.  After 
the  reign  of  Ikhnaton,  the  first  period  of 
the  Empire  came  to  an  end,  with  the  fall 
of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty. 

1350-1205  "  Nineteenth  Dynasty.  Thebes  restored,  with 
the  restoration  of  the  worship  of  Amon- 
Ra.  Great  Hall  of  Karnak  built.  Reign  of 
Merneptah,  1225-1215,  the  probable  "Pha- 
raoh of  the  Oppression". 

1205-1200       "      Complete  anarchy. 


Chronological  Outline  3 

1200-1090  B.  C.  Twentieth  Dynasty.  Thebes  is  the  capital. 
Power  of  the  priesthood  increases.  The 
high-priest  Herihor  seized  the  throne  at 
Thebes  at  the  end  of  this  period. 

TANITE-AMONITE  PERIOD,  1090-945  B.  C. 

1090-945  B.  C.  Twenty-first  Dynasty.  Period  of  priestly 
power.     Capital  at  Tanis. 

LIBYAN  PERIOD,  945-712  B.  C. 

945-745     B.  C.  Twenty-second  Dynasty.    Capital  at  Bubas- 

tis. 
745-718         "      Twenty-third  Dynasty.    Capital  at  Bubas- 

tis. 


NUBIAN  PERIOD,  722-660  B.  C. 

718-712     B.  C.  Twenty-fourth  Dynasty.     Capital  at  Sais. 
712-663         "      Twenty-fifth  Dynasty.    Capital  at  Napata. 

Assyrian  supremacy,  670-660. 
663-525         "      Twenty-sixth  Dynasty.     Capital  at  Sais. 

RESTORATION  PERIOD,  660-525  B.  C. 

660-525  B.  C.  Continuation  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty. 
Renaissance  in  religion,  literature,  art, 
and  government.  Imitation  of  the  past. 
Egypt  conquered  by  the  Persians  under 
Cambyses,  525. 

The  Persians  ruled  Egypt  from  525-332, 
when  Alexander  conquered  Egypt  and 
founded  Alexandria.  Egypt  then  remained 
a  part  of  the  Greek  empire  till  30  B.  C. 
when  it  was  incorporated  into  the  Roman 
empire. 


II 

INTRODUCTION 

The  modern  world  has  learned  to  gather  up  the 
fragments  that  remain,  to  conserve  the  waste  product. 
The  deposit  of  coal-tar  in  the  manufacture  of  illu- 
minating gas,  the  waste  accumulated  in  a  packing- 
house, and  the  by-products  in  the  industry  of  oil- 
refining  are  all  utilised.  They  very  often  become  as 
valuable  as  the  product  originally  sought.  The 
ancient  Egyptians,  many  thousand  years  ago,  had 
learned  this  lesson  in  a  far  higher  realm.  They  had 
learned  to  conserve  human  personality. 

But,  unfortunately,  their  lesson  was  not  an  un- 
mixed blessing.  They  never  forgot.  Their  great 
power  of  retention  sadly  mixed  their  growing  world 
of  religious  and  moral  thought.  Instead  of  being 
able  to  cast  off  worn-out  religious  and  moral  ideas, 
their  power  of  conservation  preserved  them  alongside 
higher  and  more  advanced  conceptions,  resulting 
very  often  in  much  confusion. 

In  tracing  the  growth  of  Egyptian  religious  and 
moral  ideas,  therefore,  this  fact  must  be  carefully 
borne  in  mind.  Otherwise  confusion  will  result,  and 
a  false  verdict  will  be  rendered.     Failure  to  observe 

5 


6  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

this  fact  has  led  to  the  most  diverse  views  as  to  the 
nature  and  value  of  Egyptian  religious  ideas. 

There  have  been  those  who  have  seen  in  the  ancient 
Egyptian  religion  a  perfect  monotheism;  others  have 
found  therein  merely  an  African  barbarism ;  and  still 
others  have  discovered  a  religion  so  solemn  and 
gloomy  as  to  be  altogether  sad  and  repulsive.  These 
estimates  are  all  false.  It  is  questionable  whether 
the  Egyptians  ever  developed  a  real  monotheism,  even 
in  the  palmiest  religious  days  of  Ikhnaton.  The  ver- 
dict of  solemnity  and  gloom  has  resulted  from  the 
mistaken  idea  that,  because  a  large  percentage  of 
religious  literature  is  mortuary  and  was  inscribed  on 
the  walls  of  tombs  and  burial  chambers,  the  out- 
look was  solemn  and  gloomy.  On  the  contrary,  even 
the  mortuary  inscriptions  and  bas-reliefs  show  a 
singularly  happy  and  light-hearted  people. 

Those  who  find  in  ancient  Egypt  nothing  more 
than  another  barbaric  African  religion  are  carried 
away  by  the  mistaken  idea  that  because  there  are 
primitive  African  religions  of  barbarism  to-day,  all 
African  religion  must  have  been,  and  must  be, 
barbaric.  Because  they  know  something  about  modern 
barbaric  religions  in  Africa,  they  assume  that  their 
knowledge  must  be  read  back  into  ancient  Egyptian 
literature,  and  become  the  only  key  capable  of  un- 
locking its  mysteries.  But  anyone  who  reflects  on 
the  astounding  material  civilization  built  up  in 
ancient  Egypt,  the  language,  architecture,  art,  and 
literature,  not  to  speak  of  the  highest  and  purest  of 
moral  conceptions,  cannot  doubt  for  one  moment  the 
capacity  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  for  high  religious 


Introduction  7 

thought.  And  when  we  go  to  their  literature  and  art 
to  seek  light  on  this  impression,  we  are  rewarded 
with  a  wealth  of  religious  conceptions  which,  in  spite 
of  their  limitations,  were  not  surpassed  in  the  ancient 
world,  and  are  quite  comparable  in  some  respects 
with  anything  the  world  has  ever  witnessed  since. 
The  religious  precepts  of  Egypt  have  interwoven 
themselves  into  the  moral  fibre  of  civilization,  her 
moral  teaching  has  echoed  from  the  mountain  tops 
and  through  the  valleys  of  human  experience,  and 
her  gospel  of  righteousness  still  lives  and  breathes 
and  operates. 

Some  of  the  Greeks  were  inclined  to  ridicule  the 
civilization  of  Egypt.  But  they  may  be  forgiven, 
for  their  ignorance  was  their  guide.  Since  their 
times,  nay,  since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
Christian  century,  the  mighty  scroll  of  Egyptian 
history  has  been  unrolled  for  us.  And  though  there 
are  some  periods  that  are  yet  difficult  to  interpret, 
we  can  trace  with  comparative  ease  and  comfort  the 
march  of  Egyptian  civilization  from  about  4500  B.  C. 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Christian  Justinian. 
Through  all  that  period  this  indigenous  African 
people,  after  assimilating  two  or  three  distinct  pre- 
dynastic  racial  types,  and  one  or  two  waves  of 
Semitic  immigration  and  invasion,  still  persisted  and 
persevered,  developing  those  traits  and  customs 
which  are  so  characteristic  of  them.  Their  retentive 
human  memory  ever  kept  them  young;  their  vivid 
religious  imagination  kept  them  pious;  and  their 
social  sympathy  developed  a  moral  consciousness 
never  before  equalled,  and  rarely  since  surpassed. 


8  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

The  religion  of  Egypt  with  all  probability  was 
indigenous.  Of  course,  it  was  influenced,  affected, 
and  changed  to  some  extent  by  neighbouring  religious 
thought,  but  it  always  remained  and  continued  es- 
sentially Egyptian.  It  never  became  a  unit,  because 
of  the  retention  of  past  ideas,  which  it  had  not  the 
faculty  to  outgrow  or  to  forget.  The  nearest  ap- 
proach to  systematization  was  effected  by  the  priests 
of  the  solar  and  Osirian  cults,  and  the  attempt  to 
unify  them  during  the  Empire  period.  But  the  at- 
tempt was  never  successful.  The  official  and  popular 
religions  always  remained  separate  and  distinct, 
official  belief  and  practice  being  crystallized  in  Ra 
theology  and  popular  religious  conceptions  and  uses 
in  Osirian  theology. 

Egyptian  religious  thinkers  had  their  visions. 
They  were  high  and  noble ;  they  comprised  the  human 
and  the  divine;  they  aimed  at  bringing  God  to  man 
and  man  to  God.  And  they  succeeded  to  a  remark- 
able degree  in  translating  these  visions  into  realities. 
But  in  much  they  failed.  They  failed  to  harmonize 
their  religious  thinking,  rendering  it  powerless  to 
endure;  and  they  failed  to  break  the  bonds  of  con- 
servatism, which  made  their  systems  unwieldy.  But 
they  possessed  a  creativeness  and  a  practical  power  of 
symbolism,  a  depth  of  moral  penetration  and  a  sense 
of  the  divine,  which  have  entered  into  the  very  vitals 
of  the  highest  of  all  human  religious  systems,  and 
left  its  imperishable  impress.  Christian  thinkers 
cannot  contemplate  the  problems  of  soul  and  spirit, 
of  the  resurrection  of  a  material  body,  of  heaven  as 
a  glorified  counterpart  to  earth,  of  the  judgment  to 


Introduction  9 

come  and  the  future  world,  without  using  the  ma- 
terials of  thought  created  and  enriched  by  Egypt, 
and  presented  to  the  Christian  world  as  her  contribu- 
tion to  the  "fulness  of  time"  and  the  progress  of 
modern  religious  and  moral  thought.  Such  were  her 
visions  and  tasks,  and  such  is  her  share  in  all  that 
man  holds  dear. 


Ill 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  IN  EGYPT 

Mankind  is  incurably  religious,  and  all  religion  is 
a  sweep  of  the  soul  toward  God.  The  soul  is  always 
athirst  for  God.  This  is  true  of  practically  all  ages 
and  of  all  races,  early  as  well  as  modern,  primitive 
as  well  as  cultured.  Early  Egypt  and  the  early 
Egyptians  were  no  exceptions.  Their  religious  con- 
ceptions were  very  different  from  ours.  We  call  them 
crude  and  undeveloped.  Their  gods  were  made  in 
their  own  image  and  likeness,  very  naive  and  ex- 
ceedingly anthropomorphic.  They  had  not  made 
much  progress  in  the  analysis  of  spiritual  conceptions 
and  soul-experiences.  But  they  were  typically  human 
in  that  their  soul  gave  them  no  rest  in  its  persistent 
search  for  God.  And  we  shall  find  that  they  really 
succeeded  in  learning  a  great  deal  about  God  as  well 
as  about  themselves  and  about  their  own  soul. 

Primitive  man  was  ever  conscious  of  that  some- 
thing not  himself,  beyond  himself,  of  which  he  longed 
to  know  more.  And  though  it  seemed  to  hide  itself 
from  him,  his  faith  in  his  ability  to  know  it,  and 
more  about  it,  ever  lured  him  on  to  deeper  and  keener 
investigations  in  the  affairs  of  the  mysterious  world 

10 


The  Idea  of  God  in  Egypt  1  1 

about  him,  every  atom  and  fibre  of  which  he  believed 
to  beat  with  meaning  and  purpose. 

The  human  soul  is  endowed  with  certain  faculties 
which  are  found  at  all  stages  of  the  soul's  develop- 
ment. Such  faculties  are  trust,  reverence,  loyalty, 
idealism.  It  desires  that  which  is  trustworthy,  that 
which  it  can  reverence  and  obey  in  love,  and  that  in 
which  it  can  find  all  that  it  considers  good  and  true 
and  just.  It  expects  love,  sympathy,  tenderness, 
pity,  helpfulness  in  return.  The  soul  has  always 
desired  and  searched  for  these  things.  But  they  are 
attributes  of  personality,  which  explains  the  fact  that 
the  soul  has  always  tried  to  think  of  that  power  not 
ourselves,  with  which  we  have  to  do,  as  a  personal 
power. 

One  of  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  arguments 
about  the  mystery  of  God  was  put  forth  by  St.  Paul 
in  one  of  his  letters  to  the  Corinthians.  He  said, 
"For  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  man,  save  the 
spirit  of  man  that  is  in  him  ?  Even  so  the  things  of 
God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God."  His 
argument  was  that  none  but  God  can  thoroughly 
know  God,  but  just  as  man  may  learn  to  know  his 
fellow  man  by  studying  his  personality,  that  is,  his 
spirit,  so  man  may  learn  to  know  God  by  acquiring 
more  and  more  of  God's  spirit.  This  is  applicable 
to  the  way  in  which  man  has  always  learned  to  know 
God.  The  ancient  Egyptians  knew  that  power  not 
themselves  only  in  so  far  as  they  gradually  under- 
stood its  spirit  and  purpose. 

The  search  for  God  has  always  been  experimental. 
It  is  true  that  God  revealed  himself  in  his  universe 


12  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

which  he  called  into  being  at  the  beginning  of  time, 
and  which,  since  that  time,  has  been  expressing  more 
and  more  completely  the  personality  and  the  ways  of 
God.  But  mankind  has  been  obliged  to  discover  God 
— has  been  obliged  to  set  up  hypotheses  and  tear 
them  down  again,  to  formulate  theories  about  God 
and  discard  them  again ;  in  short,  to  do  in  the  realm 
of  religion  what  he  has  learned  to  do  in  all  other 
spheres  of  human  endeavour,  to  experiment.  Let 
us,  with  the  aid  of  the  science  of  Egyptology,  follow 
in  outline  the  way  in  which,  and  the  extent  to  which, 
ancient  Egypt  experimentally  learned  to  know  those 
powers  that  make  for  righteousness,  that  mysterious 
mind  stuff,  that  infinite  and  external  energy  from 
which  all  things  proceed,  that  power  which  the 
Egyptians  called  neteru  (gods)  and  which  we  call 
God. 

The  early  Egyptians  were  not  sceptics.  No  primi- 
tive people  ever  is.  Scepticism  arose  much  later,  but 
only  after  the  Egyptians  had  developed  a  ripe  civiliza- 
tion. The  early  Egyptian  saw  the  gods  manifested 
in  all  natural  phenomena  which  were  incompre- 
hensible to  him.  His  world  was  peopled  with  gods, 
because  it  was  full  of  mystery  and  wonder.  He 
sometimes  identified  a  god  directly  with  some  re- 
markable phenomenon,  and  called  the  god  by  its 
name.  Thus  the  sky  (nut)  became  the  goddess  Nut, 
the  earth  (geb)  became  the  God  Geb,  the  sun  was 
Ra,  and  the  Nile  was  Hapi.  Sometimes  he  identified 
a  god  indirectly  with  some  natural  phenomenon. 
This  was  done  usually  by  identifying  a  god  with  some 
animal  which  was  directly  or  indirectly  associated 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  1  3 

with  some  natural  phenomenon.  Thus  at  the  Fayum 
a  god  was  identified  with  the  crocodile,  and  called 
Sebek;  at  the  cataract  a  god  was  identified  with  the 
ram,  and  called  Khnum ;  and  in  the  Delta  the  hippo- 
potamus became  Rert. 

The  simpler  phenomena  in  nature  were  the  earliest 
to  be  identified  with  superhuman  power  and  so  were 
personified  and  deified.  Cosmic  personification  was 
comparatively  late,  but  still  can  be  traced  to  pre- 
historic times.  But  as  soon  as  the  cosmic  phenomena 
were  recognized,  they  immediately  took  their  place 
among  the  greatest  of  all  superhuman  powers,  be- 
cause of  their  deep  mysteriousness.  But  the  power 
of  observation  grew  very  slowly,  and  therefore  the 
earliest  gods  were  the  spirits  in  the  nearest  objects 
that  made  for  comfort;  and  those  that  made  for  dis- 
comfort were  demons.  Both  were  worshipped,  the 
good  spirits  for  help,  and  the  evil  spirits  in  propitia- 
tion. 

There  was  no  limit  to  the  process  of  deification. 
Stones  were  identified  with  gods,  as  at  Heliopolis; 
springs  and  rivers,  as  was  the  spring  at  Heliopolis, 
and  the  river  Nile;  plants  and  trees,  as  the  sycamore 
and  the  palm ;  and  hills  and  mountains,  as  the  sand- 
hill at  Heliopolis  and  the  mountains  in  the  peninsula 
of  Sinai.  But  the  medium  of  personification  most 
common  in  ancient  Egypt  was  the  animal.  It  was 
perhaps  not  only  because  in  some  indefinite  way 
animals  were  associated  with  certain  places  and  nat- 
ural phenomena,  but  also  because  men  associated 
certain  animals  with  certain  human  traits  and  char- 
acteristics.     That  has  always  been  so.      Thus,   the 


14  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

lion  was  connected  with  power,  the  bull  with  strength, 
the  ibis  with  wisdom,  and  the  cat  with  maternity. 

Originally  every  town  or  settlement  had  at  least 
one  local  spirit.  Thus  there  were  many  gods.  Most 
of  them  received  names,  such  as  Uast  of  Thebes; 
others  were  nameless,  such  as  "He  of  Edfu"  or  "She 
of  Nekheb" ;  but  the  "unknown  gods"  were  unknown 
only  so  far  as  their  towns  and  communities  had 
gained  little  reputation.  When  towns  were  amal- 
gamated into  larger  communities,  their  gods  were 
amalgamated  also,  and  the  resultant  deity  assumed 
the  characteristics  and  attributes  of  all  those  whom 
he  had  absorbed.  In  this  way  the  god  of  a  small 
but  progressive  and  growing  town  may  develop  into 
a  great  god,  just  as  Min  of  Koptos  became  Amon  of 
Thebes.  The  power  of  a  god  depended  upon  the 
power  of  his  clients.  Similarly,  according  as  people 
migrated  from  one  place  to  another,  so  the  same  god 
differentiated  into  different  personalities  bearing  the 
same  name.  Thus,  there  were  three  Horuses  in 
Upper  and  two  in  Lower  Egypt,  just  as  there  were 
five  Hathors  in  Upper  and  one  in  Lower  Egypt.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  the  same  god  may  appear  in  dif- 
ferent forms  and  at  different  places  and  be  consid- 
ered different  gods.  Such  was  the  case  of  Amon-Ea, 
who  absorbed  many  local  gods,  but  was  always  called 
Amon-Ea.  Thutmose  III  worshipped  ten  of  these  all 
at  once. 

When  Egypt  was  organized  into  districts  or  nomes, 
each  nome  assumed  a  deity.  There  were  Set  of 
Ombos,  Horus  of  Hieraconopolis,  Thoth  of  Hermop- 
olis,  and  thirty-nine  other  nome  gods.     Sometimes  a 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  I  5 

uome  extended  its  influence  beyond  the  borders  of 
its  province,  in  which  case  its  deity's  influence  was 
correspondingly  increased,  such  as  Ap-uat  of  Siut. 
But  sometimes  also  the  god  of  the  nome  was  over- 
come by  another  god.  Such  was  the  fate  of  Anher 
of  Thinis  who  was  replaced  by  Osiris  of  Abydos. 

In  early  Egypt,  as  among  all  primitive  peoples, 
the  fruitful  source  of  the  multiplication  of  gods  many 
and  lords  many  was  the  idea  that  every  phenomenon 
that  was  at  all  difficult  to  understand  was  the  abode 
of  a  god.  Hence  the  endless  number  of  gods.  There 
were,  however,  some  deities  who  obtained  a  more  per- 
manent place  in  the  economy  of  religious  thought 
than  others.  They  did  so  because  of  the  importance, 
prominence,  or  usefulness  of  the  object  with  which 
they  were  identified.  Or,  better,  the  more  impor- 
tant, more  prominent,  and  more  useful  objects 
manifested  gods  who  became  permanent. 

The  most  common  agency  of  divine  manifestation 
was  an  animal.  This  was  due  primarily  to  the 
mysteriousness  of  animals.  We  think  we  know  the 
commonest  animals  very  well.  We  see  the  lizard  on 
the  fence,  the  bird  on  the  tree,  and  the  dog  in  his 
kennel,  but  of  their  real  character  and  inner  life  we 
know  very  little.  Nothing  was  more  mysterious  to 
the  primitive  mind  than  animal  life.  It  was,  there- 
fore, the  abode  of  a  god.  The  more  thinking  primi- 
tive man  did  not  worship  the  animal  as  such.  It 
was  the  deity  abiding  in  the  animal  which  was  wor- 
shipped. But  this  distinction  was  not  always  clearly 
made,  and  often  the  ram  or  the  bull  or  the  hawk  was 
worshipped   as    such.     But   the   compound    forms — 


16  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

animal-headed  deities — show  that  it  was  the  person 
behind  the  animal  form  that  was  worshipped. 

There  is  nothing  greater  than  a  personality,  and 
according  as  the  Egyptian  progressed  in  self-conscious- 
ness, the  deeper  his  conception  of  personality  became. 
He  ascribed  to  his  god  a  personality  equal  to  the  best 
which  he  could  possibly  conceive,  for  he  associated 
the  best  he  knew  with  the  idea  of  god.  It  is  there- 
fore clear  that  what  the  Egyptian  worshipped  in  the 
external  form  of  an  animal  or  animal-headed  being 
was  the  person  of  a  god.  Now  the  composite  form 
is  found  earlier  than  the  Pyramid  age,  which  indi- 
cates that  the  distinction  between  the  agency  of 
manifestation  and  the  personality  manifested  existed 
at  a  very  early  period. 

The  most  prominent  of  the  god-manifesting  ani- 
mals were:  the  Apis  bull  of  Memphis,  which  man- 
ifested a  god  who  was  identified  with  the  sun;  the 
Mnevis  bull  at  Heliopolis,  which  manifested  the  same 
god;  the  Earn  of  Mendes,  which  represented  Osiris; 
the  Phoenix  of  Heliopolis,  which  manifested  the  sun- 
god  ;  the  lion  of  Heliopolis,  which  represented  A  turn ; 
the  cow  at  Dendereh,  which  manifested  Hathor ;  and 
many  others,  such  as  the  ram  (Amon)  of  Thebes,  the 
cat  (Bastet)  of  Bubastis,  the  goat  (Khnum)  at 
Elephantine,  the  hawk  (Khons)  at  Thebes,  the 
vulture  (Mut)  at  Thebes,  the  ass  (Set)  at  Ombos, 
the  ibis  (Thoth)  at  Hermopolis,  etc.  Fish  were 
recognized  as  media  for  divine  manifestation  at  a 
later  time ;  so  were  some  fabulous  beings,  such  as  the 
chimera  and  the  griffin.  Goddesses  usually  appeared 
in  the  form  of  snakes. 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  1  7 

The  chief  animal-headed  deities  were  Khnum 
(ram),  Sekhmet  (lioness),  Baste t  (cat),  Anubis 
(jackal),  Sebek  (crocodile),  Thoth  (ibis),  and  Horus 
(hawk).  This  does  not  in  any  way  exhaust  the  al- 
most endless  list  of  creatures  which  were  thought  to 
be  abodes  of  divine  beings.  Some  animals  repre- 
sented hostile  powers  and  were  abhorred,  such  as  the 
dragon-serpent,  Apop,  which  became  later  the  per- 
sonification of  the  darkness  of  night  and  of  all  that  is 
evil. 

Those  natural  phenomena  which  were  always  most 
prominent  and  useful  and  which  called  forth  the 
most  wonder  and  awe  were  usually  represented  by 
human  forms.  Such  were  the  Nile,  the  earth,  the 
sea,  and  the  heavenly  bodies.  At  a  later  period,  how- 
ever, animals  were  often  explained  as  incarnations  of 
cosmic  powers,  such  as  the  Apis  bull  of  Memphis, 
which  was  considered  the  incarnation  of  the  sun. 

The  Nile  was  early  deified.  It  was  the  source  of 
all  vegetation,  the  continual  patron  of  the  people, 
the  life  of  the  land.  It  was  personified  as  a  man 
with  female  breasts  symbolical  of  fertility.  His 
wondrous  deeds  were  always  the  admiration  of  the 
people.  The  ocean  was  personified  as  Nun,  but  was 
never  very  popular  because  of  his  distance.  But  the 
earth-god,  Geb,  was  more  popular  as  the  source  of 
food,  although  the  sky-god  appealed  more  effectively 
to  the  imagination  of  the  Egyptians.  In  fact,  the 
great  blue  has  always  had  a  fascination  all  its  own. 
Seen  through  the  clear  atmosphere  of  Egypt,  it  must 
have  been  doubly  enchanting.  It  was  personified  as 
Nut  the  self-created  mother,  and  the  husband  of  Geb. 


1  8  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

It  was  originally  depicted  as  a  black  bull,  but  it  soon 
assumed  feminine  form  and  was  pictured  as  a  woman 
or  as  a  cow.  The  atmosphere  which  separates  the 
earth  from  the  sky  was  personified  as  Shu.  The 
moon  was  probably  the  first  cosmic  force  to  be  per- 
sonified and  deified.  It  represented  the  god  Khonsu, 
the  sailor,  who  traversed  the  sky  in  a  boat;  and  was 
later  identified  with  Thoth  as  a  god  of  wisdom,  be- 
cause of  its  associations  with  chronology.  Already 
in  the  Pyramid  texts  there  are  echoes  of  astral 
theology.  Orion  was  Sahu,  the  mighty  hunter; 
Sirius,  the  dog  star,  was  Sopd;  and  the  Great  Bear 
was  identified  with  Set.  But  astral  theology  never 
appealed  very  strongly  to  the  Egyptians. 

The  vast  gulf  separating  animals  from  man  natu- 
rally gave  rise  to  a  certain  awe  in  man's  mind  when 
contemplating  the  various  species  of  inexplicable 
animals.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  resulted  in  the  be- 
lief that  the  gods  manifested  themselves  in  animal 
forms.  This  does  not,  however,  exclude  the  fact  that 
man  was  very  often  inexplicable  to  man.  For  just 
as  there  is  a  separating  something  between  the  very 
atoms  that  compose  all  physical  objects,  so  there  is  a 
veil  of  mystery  which  separates  man  from  man. 
There  is  no  man  who  absolutely  knows  his  friend,  no 
matter  how  close  that  friend  may  be  to  him.  Let 
the  two  stand  in  the  presence  of  some  great  phenom- 
enon, such  as  Niagara,  or  a  beautiful  work  of  art,  and 
after  a  moment's  reflection,  let  them  both  express 
their  impressions — and  how  different  the  impressions 
will  be !  Or  let  the  normal  individual  read  about  the 
self-sacrifice  of  a  martyr  or  missionary,  or  about  the 


The  Idea  of  God  in  Egypt  19 

depravity  of  a  criminal  who  for  a  few  dollars  would 
blow  up  a  whole  shipload  of  fellow-beings.  It  would 
be  impossible  for  him  to  appreciate  either  the  lofty 
idealism  of  the  one  or  the  degraded  bestiality  of  the 
other.  So  man  is  often  inexplicable  and  mysterious 
to  man.  Hence  it  was  that  the  Egyptians  often  saw 
the  gods  manifested  in  the  figures  of  men.  Thus 
Ptah,  Osiris,  Muth,  Neith,  and  many  others  were 
represented  in  human  form. 

Conversely,  because  man  makes  his  god  in  his  own 
image  and  likeness,  creating  man-like  gods— deities 
that  are  merely  enlarged  human  beings,  with  human 
bodies,  parts,  and  passions— so  some  human  beings 
were  considered  gods.      In  attempting  to  construct 
genealogies,  or  trace  ancestry  back  as  far  as  possible, 
the  Egyptian  arrived  at  the  place  where  no  further 
human "  step    backward    could    be    made.     He    was 
obliged  to  predicate  a  divine  father  for  his  earliest 
ancestor.     In  fact,  he  would  reason,  the  gods  once 
lived  upon  earth  and  reigned  here  as  kings.     The 
earliest  kings,  then,  were  gods.     But  the  time  came 
when  the  gods  retired  from  the  earth,  and  left  as 
rulers  their  off-spring.     These  latter  were  the  earliest 
human  kings,  who  were  also  divine.     It  thus  came 
about  that  from   the   earliest  times,  the  Egyptians 
considered  their  kings  to  be  gods,  and  worshipped 
them   as  such.     The  kings   were  usually  called  the 
"good  god",  and  sometimes  the  "great  god".     They 
were   revered   as   gods  both   before   and   after  their 
death.     In  later  times,  in  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty, 
stories  were  told,  and  scenes  were  depicted  in  sculp- 
ture, which  indicated  the  pharaoh  as  son  of  a  human 


20  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

woman,  but  procreated  by  a  god.  But,  whether  as 
divine  or  semi-divine,  the  pharaoh  was  always  a  god. 

This  tendency  to  deify  whatever  was  inexplicable 
resulted  later  in  the  belief  that  any  man  duly  buried 
became  a  divine  being,  and  this  was  especially  true 
if  he  had  been  drowned.  The  dead  became  identified 
with  the  god  Osiris.  And  in  still  later  times,  in  the 
Ptolemaic  period,  two  men  who  were  famous  in 
ancient  times  were  deified  and  worshipped  as  gods; 
namely,  Imhotep,  who  was  an  architect  of  the  Third 
Dynasty,  and  Amenhotep,  a  wise  man  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Dynasty. 

The  Egyptians  never  became  abstract  thinkers. 
Their  script  is  sufficient  evidence  for  that.  They 
always  felt  the  need  of  expressing  themselves  in  con- 
crete terms.  Even  in  expressing  abstract  ideas  they 
used  concrete  symbols.  Truth  was  pictured  by  means 
of  a  feather,  writing  by  an  ink-well  and  pen,  and 
walking  by  a  pair  of  legs.  It  thus  came  about  that 
when  it  was  desired  to  venerate  the  ideas  of  joy, 
knowledge,  destin}^,  fate,  and  truth,  personifications 
were  created.  The  Egyptians,  therefore,  worshipped 
abstract  gods,  such  as  Ptah,  the  power  of  creation, 
who  was  venerated  especially  at  Memphis,  and  who 
was  later  fused  with  Apis,  Sokar,  and  Osiris;  Min, 
the  abstract  father-god,  the  earliest  form  of  Amon. 
and  a  desert  god,  worshipped  at  Hammamat ;  Hathor, 
the  abstract  mother-god,  who  was  later  fused  with 
Isis;  Maat,  goddess  of  truth  and  justice,  and  asso- 
ciated with  Ra,  Thoth,  and  Ptah;  Xefertum,  god  of 
vegetation  and  growth,  son  of  Ptah  and  Sekhmet; 
Safekht,  goddess  of  writing;  Hu,  the  god  of  taste; 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  21 

^  Sa,  the  god  of  perception ;  and  the  Eight  Khmunu  or 

elemental  deities.  Most  of  these  deities  do  not  occur 
till  comparatively  later  times.  No  great  festivals 
were  connected  with  them  and  no  celebrations.  But 
some  of  them  were  very  powerful,  such  as  Maat,  Min, 
and  Hathor. 

When  Egypt  became  a  world-empire,  and  came  into 
contact  with  other  peoples,  she  sometimes  recognized 
their  deities.  The  most  important  deities  recognized 
were:  Astarte  of  Byblus,  identified  with  Hathor; 
Baal,  Anat,  and  Resheph  of  Syria,  the  first  of  whom 
was  a  war-god  and  identified  with  Set,  the  second  a 
war-goddess,  and  the  third  a  war-god;  Sutekh,  na- 
tional god  of  Kheta,  and  identified  with  Set;  Sati,  a 
cataract  goddess,  and  identified  with  Hathor ;  Dedun, 
an  African  god  of  Nubia,  fused  with  Ptah,  because 
he  was  a  creator-god ;  and  Bes,  who  was  in  the  earliest 
and  latest  times  considered  a  female,  but  usually  as 
a  male-dwarf  of  Sudanese  type.  None  of  these 
deities,  however,  played  any  important  part  in 
Egyptian  affairs,  except  the  war-gods,  during  the 
Hyksos  period.  It  was  her  struggle  with  the  Hyksos 
which  made  Egypt  for  the  time  being  a  war-like 
people,  when  war-gods  became  popular. 

It  has  been  thought  that  sun-worship  came  from 
Babylonia.  But  proof  of  this  is  still  wanting.  The 
chances  are  that  sun-worship  was  indigenous  to  al- 
most all  early  races.  At  any  rate,  at  a  very  early 
period  in  Egypt,  the  greatest  gods  were  manifested 
in  the  two  greatest  and  most  influential  of  natural 
phenomena,  the  sun  and  the  Nile.  The  sun  was  per- 
sonified as  Ra,  and  very  soon  became  so  powerful  as 


22  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

to  dominate  all  Egypt.  At  first  the  sun-god  was  be- 
lieved to  have  been  born  of  Nun,  the  primeval,  watery 
chaos,  and  appeared  as  Atum.  According  to  other 
beliefs  Ptah,  the  creator-god,  shaped  an  egg  out  of 
which  Ra  appeared;  according  to  another  theory  the 
sun-god  arose  out  of  a  lotus  flower;  according  to  a 
fourth  story  Ra  appeared  for  the  first  time  on  the 
pyramidal  Ben-stone  in  Heliopolis,  the  symbol  of  the 
sun;  and  according  to  still  another  account  he  was 
self-produced. 

The  sun-god  appeared  in  different  forms.  At 
Edfu  he  was  seen  as  a  falcon  and  bore  the  name  Horus 
or  Harakhte;  at  Heliopolis  he  was  believed  to  be  an 
aged  man  tottering  down  the  western  sky;  and  at 
other  places  he  was  represented  as  a  winged-beetle, 
Khepri,  rising  in  the  east.  Then  later,  Horus  be- 
came the  son  of  Ra,  and  Ra  was  pictured  in  two  sky- 
barques,  one  for  the  morning  and  the  other  for  the 
evening,  which  sailed  across  the  sky. 

Ra  was  revered  chiefly  because  he  was  considered 
the  source  of  all  life  and  increase,  upon  whom  all 
people  and  things  depended.  He  had  his  enemies, 
through  whom  he  lost  his  eye,  which  was  called  the 
"Horus-eye",  but  it  was  restored  by  the  friendly 
moon-god,  Thoth.  When  the  kingdoms  of  the  North 
and  South  were  united,  Ra  became  the  great  king- 
god,  and,  when,  in  the  minds  of  his  people,  he  was 
transferred  to  heaven,  his  representative  was  the 
deified  king,  who  was  called  after  the  god,  such  as 
Khafre.  The  kings  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty  were  so 
thoroughly  committed  to  the  recognition  of  the  su- 
premacy of  Ra  among  all  the  gods  that  they  assumed 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  23 

the  title,  "Son  of  Ra",  and  those  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty 
were  so  devoted  to  him  that  they  built  great  sanctu- 
aries for  his  worship  at  which  was  always  stationed 
an  obelisk,  surmounted  by  a  pyramid,  his  symbol.  A 
later  legend  connected  the  kings  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty 
with  Ra  as  their  father,  telling  how  the  three  sons  of 
Ra  should  succeed  king  Khufu.  The  pharaohs  thus 
became  the  physical  sons  of  the  sun-god. 

The  other  highly  important  god-bearing  phenom- 
enon in  early  Egypt  was  the  Nile,  and  while  Hapi 
was  the  Nile-god,  Osiris,  as  early  as  the  Pyramid  age, 
was  identified  with  the  Nile.  And  since  water  was 
the  source  of  fertility  and  a  life-giving  agency,  Osiris 
embodied  within  himself  the  attributes  of  a  life- 
giving  and  fertilizing  god.  As  a  fertilizing  god  he 
was  closely  connected  with  the  soil  and  all  vegetable 
life.  He  is  sometimes  depicted  as  a  prostrate  figure 
with  grain  sprouting  from  his  body.  He  is  also 
associated  with  wine.  But  as  the  nature-god  he  be- 
came prominent  as  the  embodiment  of  the  idea  of 
ever-dying  and  ever-reviving,  characteristic  of  nature, 
and  especially  of  the  rising  and  falling  of  the  Nile. 

Osiris  was,  according  to  Egyptian  belief,  an  ancient 
king,  who  succeeded  his  father,  Geb,  the  earth-god, 
as  king  of  Egypt.  His  wife-sister  and  protector  was 
Isis.  He  was  located  at  Busiris  (Dedu)  in  the  Delta, 
but  before  3400  B.  C.  found  a  home  in  the  South  at 
Siut,  and  later  at  Abydos  where  he  absorbed  an  old 
god,  by  name,  Khenti-Amentiu.  Plutarch  has  left 
a  story  about  the  death  of  Osiris  by  the  hand  of  his 
enemy  Set,  but  Egyptian  sources  have  not  confirmed 
it,  further  than  indications  in  the  Pyramid  Terts 


24  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

that  he  was  assassinated;  or  that  he  was  drowned, 
according  to  a  stela  of  the  Pyramid  age. 
.  Plutarch's  story,  in  brief,  is  that  Set  obtained  by 
craft  the  measure  of  the  body  of  Osiris,  and  then 
caused  a  chest  of  the  same  size  to  be  made,  which  he 
introduced  into  the  banquet-hall  of  Osiris.  He  pro- 
posed by  way  of  jest  that  the  chest  should  belong  to 
whomsoever  it  would  fit.  As  soon  as  Osiris  laid  him- 
self down  in  the  chest,  the  followers  of  Set  rushed 
forward  and  clapped  on  the  cover.  Osiris  was  carried 
to  the  Tanaitic  mouth  of  the  Nile  and  cast  into  it. 
The  chest  was  borne  on  the  waves  to  the  coast  of 
Byblos,  where  it  was  found  by  Isis.  After  some  delay 
at  the  court  of  the  king  of  Byblos,  Isis  succeeded  in 
bringing  it  back  to  Egypt.  But  Set  discovered  it, 
and  tearing  it  open  and  dividing  the  body  into  four- 
teen parts,  he  scattered  the  fragments  throughout 
Egypt.  Isis  eventually  recovered  all  the  missing 
parts  but  one,  over  each  of  which  she  erected  a 
temple.  Soon  afterwards  Osiris  returned  from  the 
other  world  and  induced  his  son  Horus  to  give  battle 
to  Set,  whom  he  finally  defeated. 

Such  in  outline  is  the  story  as  presented  by 
Plutarch.  But  it  is  not  very  ancient.  The  solar 
feud  of  Horus  and  Set  is  not  originally  Osirian.  The 
earliest  stories  about  Osiris  must  have  pictured  him 
as  symbolizing  the  cycle  of  nature,  dying  and  rising 
again,  the  life-giver,  even  in  death.  In  later  times 
when  the  story  of  the  feud  of  Horus  and  Set  became 
associated  with  Osiris,  Horus  became  the  symbol  of 
filial  piety,  who,  in.  his  fight  with  Set,  lost  his  eye, 
•the  #eye  becoming  thenceforth  the  type  of  all  sacrifice. 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  25 

The  Pyramid  Texts  give  the  story  of  the. resurrec- 
tion of  Osiris  in  some  detail.  He  then  sat  upon,  the 
throne 'of  a  subterranean  Egyptian,  kingdom*  of  the 
"dead," where  he  became  the  champion  and.  friend  of 
the  departed.'  His  right  to  this .  position  was  guaran- 
teed at  a  trial  by  the  gods,  when  Osiris  was  "justified" 
and  Set  was  condemned.  Henceforth,  all  souls  in 
the  future  had  to  undergo  the  same  judgment  and  be 
"justified"  before  they  could  become  one  with  Osiris. 
,  From  the  first,  Osiris  was  very  popular  and 
rivalled  Ea,  developing  into  the  great  father  deity, 
and  absorbing  into  himself  all  the  best  elements  of 
Egyptian  thought.  The  fatherly  character  of  Osiris, 
the  wifely  fidelity  of  Isis,  the  filial  love  of  Horus, 
the  ideal  family  relationship  of  the  three  gods,  the 
generosity  and  eternal  solicitude  of  Osiris,  made  him 
and  his  family  the  ideal  divine  circle.  His  conquest 
of  the  love  and  faith  of  the  people,  however,  was  very 
gradual..  At  first  he  was  a  hostile  god,  but  began  .to 
be  known  for  his  friendliness,  even  at.  the  dawn  of 
history.  Very  soon  he  became  connected  with  the 
king,  and  made  such  an  impress  upon  the  royal  gov- 
ernment of.  the  land  that  the  oldest  religious  festival 
was  permeated  with  his  personality.  In  the  Sed- 
Feast  the. king  assumed  the  costume  of  Osiris  and  im- 
personated the  life  of  the  resurrected  god.  The  king 
then  became  identified  with  Osiris,  and  was  .assured 
of  a.  like  .  resurrection  and  similar  .  privileges  in  .the 
future,  world.      ,    . . ...... 

At  Heliopolis  the  priests  combined  the  solar  the- 
ology of  the  struggle  .between  Horus  and.  Set  with 
the  Osiris  theology.     In  the.  early  solar  theology  Set 


26  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

and  Horns  divided  Egypt  between  themselves,  but 
when  Horns  was  attached  to  Osiris,  Set  became  hos- 
tile, and  Horns  was  rewarded  by  being  made  king  of 
the  whole  land.  After  this,  Osiris  was  said  to  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  Ra,  when  the  latter  ascended  into 
heaven.  Osiris  then  ushered  in  a  new  age  of  civiliza- 
tion. He  became  in  succession  the  Xile,  earth, 
vegetable,  and  sun-god  in  the  mind  of  a  vast  number 
of  people. 

Thus  the  two  great  rival  systems  of  theology  in 
Egypt  centred  in  the  personalities  of  the  gods  Ra  and 
Osiris.  Ra  was  the  more  aristocratic  and  autocratic 
of  the  two.  He  dominated  the  higher  ruling  classes, 
and  controlled  the  greater  political  affairs  of  the 
country.  But  Osiris  got  closer  to  the  heart  of  the 
people.  He  was  their  life-giver,  their  saviour,  and 
their  friend  in  this  world,  and  in  the  next  he  would 
take  them  all  unto  himself.  The  warmer  religious 
tones  clustered  around  Osiris  and  his  circle,  the 
sterner  and  more  masterly  around  Ra. 

The  Old  Kingdom  in  Egypt  which  lasted  until 
2475  B.  C.  was  the  period  of  nature  worship  in  re- 
ligion and  of  absolutism  in  politics.  This  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  period  of  disruption  and  feudalism. 
Then  followed  the  brilliant  Middle  Kingdom,  the 
period  of  the  culmination  of  Egyptian  civilization, 
the  epoch  of  individualism,  of  the  growing  sense  of 
moral  obligations,  and  of  the  development  of  social 
forces.  Ra  became  the  great  national  god,  the  self- 
originated,  the  author  and  ruler  of  the  world.  A  step 
towards  a  real  henotheism  had  been  made ;  the  other 
gods,  except  Osiris,  being  reduced  to  helpers  of  Ra. 


The  Idea  of  God  in  Egxtpt  27 

Not  even  feudalism,  which  naturally  tended  to  en- 
hance the  power  of  local  gods,  could  stem  the  tide  of 
Ra's  importance.  The  various  nome  gods  were  for 
the  time  being  amalgamated  into  the  great  sun-god. 
Thus  the  crocodile-god  of  the  Fayum  became  Sebek- 
Ra,  the  ram  of  Thebes  became  Amon-Ra;  the  only 
gods  escaping  the  hyphenization  being  Osiris,  Ptah, 
and  Thoth. 

Ra's  great  rival  was  Osiris,  and  while  the  former 
was  dominating  the  great  official  priesthood,  the 
doctrine  of  the  latter  was  permeating  more  and  more 
the  masses  of  the  people.  Individual  consciousness 
was  awakening,  and  very  early  in  the  Middle  King- 
dom we  find  the  individual  assured  of  union  with 
Osiris  in  the  next  world.  All  classes  were  made 
familiar  with  the  way  Osiris  was  raised  from  the 
dead,  and  applied  it  personally.  His  faith  became 
very  popular,  he  was  loved  by  the  people,  and  the 
greatest  blessing  was  to  be  buried  near  Osiris  at 
Abydos.  The  Osiris  religion  became  a  great  power 
for  righteousness  among  the  masses.  The  conditions 
for  association  with  Osiris  in  the  hereafter  became 
more  and  more  moral,  and  the  conception  of  a  formal 
judgment  of  the  dead  became  well  established.  The 
ideal  to  which  every  man  looked  forward  was  to  be 
pronounced  "justified",  after  his  ordeal  before  the 
forty-two  divine  judges.  The  splendid  moral  liter- 
ature of  this  period,  which  will  be  discussed  more 
fully  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  reveals  the  height  to 
which  the  example  of  Osiris  had  led  his  people. 

Although  for  a  long  time  the  theologies  of  Ra  and 
Osiris  proceeded  side  by  side,  it  was  inevitable  that 


28  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

attempts  would  be  made  towards  amalgamation. 
This  we  see  in  the  Mortuary  or  Coffin  texts,  with  the 
result  that  Ea  is  somewhat  closely  connected  with  the 
underworld.  Thus  Osiris  not  only  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing himself  lifted  heavenward  (Pyramid  Texts),  but 
also  in  bringing  it  about  that  Ea  was  forced  earth- 
ward (Mortuary  Texts). 

After  the  period  of  decline  following  the  Middle 
Kingdom,  the  world  state  was  founded  under  the 
Empire.  In  the  past  Ea's  domain  was  confined  to 
Egypt,  but  the  successes  of  the  Egyptian  pharaohs, 
especially  Thutmose  III,  resulted  in  the  creation  of 
a  world  empire  extending  from  Asia  Minor  in  the 
north  to  the  Fourth  Cataract  in  the  south.  As  a 
result,  the  idea  of  the  great  national  god,  Ea,  cor- 
respondingly expanded,  and  we  have  the  first  step 
towards  a  practical  monotheism.  But  the  final  step 
in  that  direction  was  not  to  be  taken,  for  at  the  rise 
of  Thebes,  her  god,  Anion,  wished  to  become  the  great 
national  deity.  The  outcome  of  this  conflict  with 
Ea  was  that  the  old  local  god  of  Thebes  became 
solarized  and  united  with  Ea.  Thutmose  III  con- 
solidated the  rival  priesthoods  under  the  high  priest 
of  Anion,  who  now  became  the  national  high  priest 
of  Amon-Ea. 

All  went  well  with  Amon-Ea  till  Amenhotep  IV 
came  to  the  throne  about  1375  B.  C.  Amenhotep 
was  a  man  of  great  individuality.  He  was  a  lover  of 
piety,  and  resolved  to  leave  a  religious  impress  upon 
his  people  and  time.  The  amalgamation  of  Amon 
and  Ea  had  not  been  brought  about  without  some 
controversy.     The  king  was  pained  at  the  evident 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  29 

humiliation  of  the  old  national  god  Ea,  and  de- 
termined to  set  things  right.  But  he  was  original, 
and  was  not  satisfied  to  go  back  to  the  old  state  of 
affairs  under  Ea.  He  opposed  Anion,  but  introduced 
a  new  conception  of  the  way  in  which  the  sun-god 
manifests  himself.  He  declared  that  the  physical 
sun  was  not  god's  manifestation,  but  the  "heat"  of  the 
sun  was,  and  consequently  his  symbol  was  a  sun-disk 
with  protruding  rays,  at  the  end  of  each  ray  being 
a  hand  holding  the  sign  of  life.  He  called  this  new 
conception  of  god,  Aton,  and  expunged  the  name  of 
Amon  and  those  of  other  gods  from  public  places, 
changing  his  own  name  from  Amenhotep  to  Ikhnaton 
("Spirit  of  Aton"). 

It  was  perhaps  Ikhnaton's  original  intention  to 
depart  as  little  as  possible  from  the  old  forms  of  Ea 
worship.  But  there  is  evidence  that  he  pleased 
neither  the  Amon  nor  the  Ea  adherents.  He  was 
thus  forced  to  be  more  radical  than  he  had  antici- 
pated. He  accordingly  discarded  much  of  the  ritual 
of  the  old  sun-god  Ea,  and  transferred  his  capital 
from  Thebes,  three  hundred  miles  north  to  a  place 
which  he  called  Akhetaton  ("Horizon  of  Aton"). 
There  at  the  modern  Tell  el-Amarna  he  built  a 
temple,  where  he  developed  a  true  devotional  and 
personal  religious  spirit.  For  the  image  of  his  god 
no  place  was  provided,  nor  was  it  needed. 

Carried  on  by  his  enthusiasm  for  more  spiritual 
things,  Ikhnaton  declared  his  god  to  have  called  him- 
self forth  out  of  eternity  and  to  have  created  the 
whole  world.  Aton  was  ever  present  and  never  dies. 
The  king  encouraged  personal  communion  with  god, 


30  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

and  a  consciousness  of  divine  relationships.  He  him- 
self was  called  "living  in  truth",  and  tried  to  make 
that  sentiment  a  reality.  He  swept  away  the  old 
traditional  conservatism,  and  promulgated  a  new 
"teaching".  His  radical  reforms  can  be  seen  no- 
where more  fully  than  in  the  art  of  his  reign,  which 
burst  the  bonds  of  conservatism  and  expressed  a  love 
of  the  beautiful  in  a  natural  way.  His  reform  may 
be  compared  with  that  of  Josiah  in  Israel,  only  it 
was  far  more  thoroughgoing  and  radical. 

The  theology  of  the  Ikhnaton  reform  may  be  best 
seen  in  the  magnificent  poem  which  the  king  is  sup- 
posed to  have  composed  in  honour  of  his  god.  It 
reads : 

"Thy  dawning  is  beautiful  in  the  horizon  of  the  sky, 
O  living  Aton,  Beginning  of  life! 
When  thou  risest  in  the  eastern  horizon, 
Thou  fillest  every  land  with  thy  beauty. 
Thou  art  beautiful,  great,  glittering,  high  above  every  land, 
Thy   rays,  they  encompass  the   lands,  even   all   that  thou 

hast  made. 
Thou  art  Ra.  and  thou  carriest  them  all  away  captive; 
Thou  bindest  them  by  thy  love. 

Though  thou  art  far  away,  thy  rays  are  upon  the  earth ; 
Though  thou  art  on  high,  thy  footprints  are  the  day. 

"When  thou  settest  in  the  western  horizon  of  the  sky, 
The  earth  is  in  darkness  like  the  dead; 
They  sleep  in  their  chambers, 
Their  heads  are  wrapped  up, 
Their  nostrils  are  stopped, 
And  none  seeth  the  other, 
While  all  their  things  are  stolen 
Which  are  under  their  heads, 
And  they  know  it  not. 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  31 

Every  lion  cometh  forth  from  his  den, 

All  serpents,  they  sting. 

Darkness  .    .    . 

The  world  is  in  silence, 

He  that  made  them  resteth  in  his  horizon. 

"Bright  is  the  earth  when  thou  risest  in  the  horizon. 
When  thou  shinest  as  Aton  by  day 
Thou  drivest  away  the  darkness. 
When  thou  sendest  forth  thy  rays, 
The  Two  Lands  ( Egypt )  are  in  daily  festivity, 
Awake  and  standing  upon  their  feet 
When  thou  hast  raised  them  up. 
Their  limbs  bathed,  they  take  their  clothing. 
Their  arms  uplifted  in  adoration  to  thy  dawning. 
(Then)   in  all  the  world  they  do  their  work. 

"All  cattle  rest  upon  their  pasturage, 
The  trees  and  the  plants  nourish, 
The  birds  flutter  in  their  marshes, 
Their  wings  uplifted  in  adoration  to  thee. 
All  the  sheep  dance  upon  their  feet, 
All  winged  things  fly, 
They  live  when  thou  hast  shone  upon  them. 

"The  barques  sail  up-stream  and  down-stream  alike. 
Every  highway  is  open  because  thou  dawnest. 
The  fish  in  the  river  leap  up  before  thee. 
Thy  rays  are  in  the  midst  of  the  great  green  sea. 

"Creator  of  the  germ  in  woman, 
Maker  of  seed  in  man, 

Giving  life  to  the  son  in  the  body  of  his  mother, 
Soothing  him  that  he  may  not  weep. 
Nurse   (even)   in  the  womb, 

Giver  of  breath  to  animate  every  one  that  he  maketh ! 
When  he  cometh  forth  from  the  body    ...   on  the  day  of 

his  birth, 
Thou  openest  his  mouth  in  speech. 
Thou  suppliest  his  necessities. 


32  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

"When  the  fledgling  in  the  egg  chirps  in  the  shell, 
Thou  givest  him  breath  therein  to  preserve  him  alive. 
When  thou  hast  brought  him  together, 
To  (the  point  of)   bursting  it  in  the  egg, 
He  cometh  forth  from  the  egg 
To  chirp  with  all  his  might. 
He  goeth  about  upon  his  two  feet 
When  he  hath  come  forth  therefrom. 

"How  manifold  are  thy  works! 
They  are  hidden  from  before   (us), 
O  sole  God,  whose  powers  no  other  possesseth. 
Thou  didst  create  the  earth  according  to  thy  heart 
While  thou  wast  alone: 
Men,  all  cattle  large  and  small. 
All  that  are  upon  the  earth, 
That  go  about  upon  their  feet; 
All  that  are  on  high, 
That  fly  with  their  wings. 
The  foreign  countries,  Syria  and  Kusli, 
The  land  of  Egypt ; 

Thou  settest  every  man  into  his  place, 
Thou  suppliest  their  necessities. 
Every  one  has  his  possessions, 
And  his  days  are  reckoned. 
The  tongues  are  divers  in  speech, 

Their  forms  likewise  and  their  skins  are  distinguished. 
(For)    thou  makest  different  the  strangers. 

"Thou  makest  the  Nile  in  the  Nether  World, 
Thou  bringest  it  as  thou  desirest. 
To  preserve  alive  the  people. 
For  thou  hast  made  them  for  thyself, 
The  lord  of  them  all,  resting  among  them; 
Thou  lord  of  every  land,  who  risest  for  them, 
Thou  Sun  of  day,  great  in  majesty. 
All  the  distant  countries, 
Thou  makest   (also)    their  life, 
Thou  hast  set  a  Nile  in  the  sky; 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  33 

When  it  falleth  for  them, 
It  maketh  waves  upon  the  mountains, 
Like  the  great  green  sea. 
Watering  their  fields  in  their  towns. 

"How  excellent  are  thy  designs,  0  lord  of  eternity! 
There  is  a  Nile  in  the  sky  for  the  strangers 
And  for  the  cattle  of  every  country  that  go  upon  their  feet. 
( But )  the  Nile,  it  cometh  from  the  Nether  World  for  Egypt. 

"Thy  rays  nourish  every  garden; 
When  thou  risest  they  live, 
They  grow  by  thee. 
Thou  makest  the  seasons 
In  order  to  create  all  thy  work: 
Winter  to  bring  them  coolness, 
And  heat  that  they  may  taste  thee. 
Thou  didst  make  the  distant  sky  to  rise  therein, 
In  order  to  behold  all  that  thou  hast  made, 
Thou  alone,  shining  in  thy  form  as  living  Aton, 
Dawning,  glittering,  going  afar  and  returning. 
Thou  makest  millions  of  forms 
Through  thyself  alone; 

Cities,  towns,  and  tribes,  highways  and  rivers. 
All  eyes  see  thee  before  them, 
For  thou  art  Aton  of  the  day  over  the  earth. 


"Thou  art  in  my  heart, 
There  is  no  other  that  knoweth  thee 
Save  thy  son  Ikhnaton. 
Thou  hast  made  him  wise 
In  thy  designs  and  in  thy  might. 
The  world  is  in  thy  hand, 
Even  as  thou  hast  made  them. 
When  thou  hast  risen  they  live, 
When  thou  settest  they  die; 
For  thou  art  length  of  life  of  thyself. 
Men  live  through  thee, 


34  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

While  (their)  eyes  are  upon  thy  beauty 

Lntil  thou  settest. 

All  labor  is  put  away 

When  thou  settest  in  the  west. 

"Thou  didst  establish  the  world, 
And  raise  them  up  for  tny  son, 
Who  came  forth  from  thy  limbs, 
The  king  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt, 
Living  in  Truth,  Lord  of  the  Two  Lands, 
Nefer-khepru-Ra,  Wan-Rti   (Ikhnaton), 
Son  of  Ra,  living  in  Truth,  lord  of  diadems, 
Ikhnaton,  whose  life  is  long; 
(And  for)   the  chief  royal  wife,  his  beloved, 
Mistress  of  the  Two  Lands,  Nefer-nefru-Aton,  Nofretete, 
Living  and  nourishing  for  ever  and  ever."  * 

Ikhnaton  was  a  religious  genius,  and  was  far  in 
advance  of  his  time.  His  vision  of  a  practical  mono- 
theism, if  it  can  be  so  called,  for  it  is  not  at  all  cer- 
tain that  he  did  not  recognize  other  gods,  especially 
foreign  ones,  was  far  beyond  the  mental  reach  of  his 
contemporaries.  And  so  it  came  about  that  soon  after 
his  death,  a  reaction  set  in,  and  he  very  soon  was 
branded  with  the  title  "that  criminal  of  Akhetaton". 
All  that  Ikhnaton  had  done  was  soon  undone.  His 
successors  transferred  the  capital  back  to  Thebes, 
and  two  reigns  after  his  death,  Harmheb  whole-heart- 
edly supported  Anion  and  was  proclaimed  king.  The 
reaction  was  so  thorough  that  many  old  superstitions 
were  revived  and  new  ones  invented.  Many  foreign 
deities  were  introduced  and  the  growth  of  personal 
piety  was  considerably  checked.     The  royal  residence 


Breasted's  translation  is  followed. 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  35 

was  now  removed  from  Thebes  to  T arris  in  the  Delta, 
although  without  neglecting  the  needs  of  Anion  at 
the  old  capital,  for  it  was  during  the  reign  of  Rameses 
II  that  the  great  Hall  of  Karnak  was  built. 

Up  till  now  two  great  series  of  mortuary  texts 
had  been  in  the  making,  the  one  grouping  itself 
around  the  personality  of  the  god  Ra  and  the  other 
around  that  of  the  god  Osiris.  The  latter  has  been 
called  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  a  collection  of  magical 
texts  for  the  guidance  of  the  dead,  which  became 
authoritative  or  canonical  only  at  a  later  period.  The 
former  has  been  called  the  "Book  of  that  which  is  in 
the  Underworld"  (Amdewat),  consisting  of  an  ac- 
count of  the  nocturnal  voyage  of  the  sun  through 
twelve  regions  in  the  underworld.  Another  book 
which  belonged  to  the  Ra  cult  was  called  the  "Book  of 
Portals",  describing  the  twelve  great  fortifications  or 
gates  through  which  the  soul  must  pass  in  the  under- 
world. 

The  collapse  of  the  empire  under  the  Twenty-first 
Dynasty  was  followed  by  three  centuries  under  Libyan 
and  Nubian  dynasties,  at  the  close  of  which  came 
the  Assyrian  conquest  of  Lower  Egypt.  Meanwhile, 
after  the  high  priest  Herihor  of  the  Twenty-first 
Dynasty  had  seized  the  throne,  the  sacerdotal  power 
was  on  the  increase  for  some  time.  But  Osiris  gained 
instead  of  lost  in  popularity.  This  was  then  followed 
by  a  vigorous  line  of  Saite  kings,  when  a  strenuous 
endeavour  was  made  to  revive  the  traditions  of  an- 
tiquity. The  ancient  cults  and  rites  of  the  Old  King- 
dom were  revived,  and  complete  catalogues  of  gods 
were  made  and  inscribed  on  the  walls  of  temples. 


36  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

Great  emphasis  was  placed  upon  the  recognition .  of 
gods  in  the  form  of  animals.  At  Memphis,  the  Apis 
bull  was  regarded  as  the  body  of  Ptah;  at  Heliopolis, 
Mnevis  embodied  Ra ;  at  Hermonthis,  Ra  was  mani- 
fested in  Bacis;  the  ram  was  venerated  at  Mendes, 
the  cat  at  Bubastis,  and  the  crocodile  at  Lake  Moeris 
and  at  Memphis.  Official  religion  sank  deeper  and 
deeper  into  spiritual  decay.  There  was  plenty  of 
ceremonial,  but  little  true  religion.  However,  Osiris 
soon  became  supreme,  as  Osiris-x\pis  or  Serapis,  in 
state  as  well  as  in  popular  religion. 

In  525  the  Persians  conquered  Egypt,  but  were 
thoroughly  hated  because  of  their  disrespect  for  the 
religion  of  their  subjects.  Cambyses  is  reported  to 
have  killed  the  Apis  bull  with  his  own  hand,  and  a 
similar  story  is  told  of  Artaxerxes  Ochus.  The  Greek 
kings  of  Egypt  were  more  considerate ;  the  great  Alex- 
ander even  went  to  the  oracle  of  Anion  to  have  him- 
self recognized  as  son  of  the  god,  and  accredited 
successor  of  the  Egyptian  pharaohs.  His  successors 
gave  their  support  to  the  old  religion  of  the  land 
as  the  religion  of  the  state.  Nor  did  Greek  religious 
ideas  affect  Egypt  to  any  extent.  On  the  contrary, 
instead  of  Serapis,  the  Greeks  adopted  Osiris-Apis, 
whose  worship  together  with  that  of  Isis«  continued 
far  down  into  the  Roman  age,  until  the  edict  of 
Theodosius .  the  Great;  in  391  A.  D.,  closed  the  tem- 
ples, razed  the  Serapeum  of  Alexandria,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  old  Egyptian  religion. 

Although  the  Egyptians  never  succeeded  in  bring- 
ing about  the  establishment  of-  any  one  system  of 
theological  thought  in  the  whole  of  Egypt,  there  is 


The  Idea  of  God  in  Egypt  37 

evidence  to  show  that  they  were  active  in  attempting 
classifications,  and  did  succeed  to  some  extent.  That 
there  were  different  systems  of  theology  and  that  they 
lived  on  side  by  side  is  evinced  by  the  confusion  about 
such  deities  as  Horus  and  Osiris.  Horus  was  a  sun- 
god,  but  he  was  variously  considered  son  of  Isis,  son 
of  Hathor,  son  of  Ra,  son  of  Geb  and  Nut,  and  son 
of  Osiris ;  and  Osiris  was  variously  considered  father, 
brother,  and  husband  of  Isis,  and  father  and  son  of 
Horus. 

At  an  early  period,  however,  two  great  systems  oi 
theology  became  fairly  well  established.  One  had  its 
home  in  the  Delta,  and  the  other  in  the  South.  The 
old  sun-god,  in  the  South  was  Turn  (or  Atum),  who 
absorbed  a  primitive  myth  about  Khepri,  the  beetle 
god.  When  Ra  became  prominent,  a  combination 
took  place,  making  the  deity  Ra-Tum,  and  still  later 
a  triad  was  formed,  declaring  Ra  to  be  the  noonday 
sun,  Turn,  the  evening  sun;  and  Khepri,  the  sun  at 
dawn.  In  time  there  developed  a  regular  Ra  cycle 
and  solar  theology.  Besides  Turn  and  Khepri,  there 
were  absorbed  in  this  solar  system  the  following 
deities :  Anher  of  Thinis,  Sopdu  in  Goshen,  Nut,  Geb, 
Shu,  Tefnut,  Hapi,  and  Aten. 

In  the  Delta,  the  great .  primeval  deity,  was  the 
earth-god,  Osiris,  who .  was.  variously  identified,  with 
Hapi,  with  the  ram  of  Me'ndes,  and  with  a  tree  at 
Busiris.  With  him  were  associated  Isis,  the  mother 
goddess,  Nephthys,  sister  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  and 
Horus,  who  was  variously  represented  as  brother  and 
son  of  Osiris,  and  son  of  .Hathor.  Horus  was  also 
associated  with  Ra.  .  . 


38  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

When  the  North  and  South  were  united  into  one 
kingdom,  Ra  and  Osiris  became  one.  But  the  person- 
alities of  the  two  great  gods  were  too  well  denned  to 
remain  united.  Ra  was  the  god  of  the  aristocracy 
and  of  the  official  classes;  but  Osiris  was  the  god  of 
the  masses.  But  the  national  priests  of  Heliopolis, 
wishing  to  subordinate  Osiris,  created  a  theology  at 
the  head  of  which  they  placed  Ra,  and  sometimes 
the  old  god  Turn  (or  Atum)  : 

Ra   (or  Turn) 

.__ I 


Shu  (air) 


Tefnut  (wife  of  Shu) 


Nut  (sky) 


•Geb  (earth) 


Osiris — Isis  Set — Nephtfays 

At  Memphis  a  similar  attempt  was  made  to  sub- 
ordinate the  other  gods  to  Ptah,  putting  Ptah  in  the 
place  of  Ra  (or  Turn).  Ptah  was  called  the  creator- 
god  in  whose  thought  all  things  existed  before  his 
work  of  creation.  He  was  without  father  and  with- 
out mother,  the  first  and  greatest  of  the  gods.  But, 
of  course,  there  were  other  gods,  whom  he  brought 
into  existence. 

At  Thebes  there  arose  an  Am  on  cycle  of  deities. 
Anion  the  local  god  of  Karnak,  associated  with  the 
old  god  Min,  became  prominent  with  the  rise  of  the 
Eleventh  Dynasty.  Associated  with  him  were  the 
goddess  of  Thebes,  Mut,  Khonsu,  sbn  of  Amon  and 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  39 

Mut,  and  Neit,  a  Libyan  goddess.  Beginning  with 
the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  Anion  was  united  with  Ra, 
as  Amon-Ra. 

Other  theological  systems  arose,  but  never  became 
as  influential  as  those  already  mentioned.  There 
was  an  Ogdoad  of  Hermopolis;  and  many  triads,  the 
most  important  of  which  were  those  of  Abydos, 
Osiris-Isis-Horus ;  of  Memphis,  Ptah-Sekhet-Imho- 
tep;  of  Thebes,  Amon-Mut-Khonsu.  These  triads 
were  based  upon  the  family  idea.  A  god  would  asso- 
ciate himself  with  two  neighbouring  deities,  forming 
a  family. 

To  speak  of  an  "Egyptian  Theology"  would  bt 
unscientific.  No  one  system  was  ever  accepted  in  all 
parts  of  Egypt.  But  it  is  quite  legitimate  to  speak 
of  an  "Egyptian  Religion"  in  the  sense  that  the 
Egyptians  were  always  religious,  although  they  never 
were  unanimous  in  just  what  constituted  their  re- 
ligion. There  were  always  varieties  and  differences 
of  ideas  within  the  same  general  faith,  just  as  there 
are  various  phases  and  religious  conceptions  in 
Christianity. 

In  our  review  of  the  Egyptian  deities,  we  have  fol- 
lowed the  development  of  certain  great  gods  who 
made  themselves  indispensable  to  their  worshippers. 
Besides  many  other  deities  in  the  Delta,  Ra,  the 
sun-god,  made  himself  felt  at  a  very  early  period. 
This  was  inevitable.  In  the  South,  Osiris  appeared 
as  the  champion  of  the  people  in  general.  He  was, 
therefore,  soon  recognized  in  the  North,  where  he 
came  into  contact  with  another  sun-god,  Horus, 
whose  counterpart  in  the  South  was  Set.    Very  soon 


40  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

Horus  and  Set  separated,  the  former  becoming  the 
son  of  Osiris,  and  the  latter  an  enemy  of  both.  The 
priests  of  Ra  were  great  theologians,  and  influential 
at  court,  and  their  theology  soon  gained  acceptance 
by  those  in  authority.  This  solar  theology  became 
the  state  religion.  But  this  only  served  to  emphasize 
the  fundamental  characteristic  of  Osiris  and  his  cult. 
There  consequently  developed  two  phases  of  religion 
side  by  side:  the  state  religion,  which  was  solar;  and 
the  popular  religion,  which  was  Osirian.  There  then 
followed  an  attempt  to  coordinate  the  two  phases, 
when  the  priests  of  Heliopolis  attempted  to  absorb 
Osiris  into  their  system,  but  the  result  was  fruitless. 
The  two  phases  lived  on  side  by  side  through  the 
period  of  the  Old  Kingdom,  when  the  religion  of 
Egypt  assumed  a  form  which  was  never  very  much 
changed  afterwards;  through  the  succeeding  feudal 
age;  through  the  individualism  of  the  Middle  King- 
dom, when  there  arose  a  very  discriminating  sense  of 
moral  values  and  social  justice;  through  the  great 
period  of  the  world  state,  when  Amon  of  Thebes 
became  supreme,  but  only  by  amalgamation  with 
Ea  and  by  absorbing  the  essentials  of  the  Osirian 
faith.  Only  for  a  very  short  period,  the  reign  of 
Ikhnaton,  did  these  two  great  phases  of  Egyptian 
religious  thought  suffer  an  eclipse — and  even  then  not 
completely,  for  it  was  a  species  of  Ra  worship  which 
the  heretic  king  emphasized.  It  was,  however,  a 
forward  step,  for  Ikhnaton  left  an  impress  upon  the 
religion  of  his  country  which  was  never  lost.  His 
great  personality,  his  originality  and  insight  into  re- 
ligious values,  gave  birth  to  the  idea  of  a  personal 


The  Idea  of  God  in  Egypt  41 

god  such  as  the  race  had  never  before  experienced. 
Unchained  from  national  conservatism,  endowed  with 
a  highly  artistic  and  religious  temperament,  Ikhnaton 
got  the  first  true  glimpse  of  a  personal  god  ever  vouch- 
safed to  the  ancient  world.  He  came  nearer  a  pure 
understanding  of  the  spirit  of  God  than  any  other 
man  of  his  time.  But  his  work  was  doomed  to  failure. 
He  was  ahead  of  his  time,  and  was  misunderstood. 
His  successors  re-instated  Amon-Ea  side  by  side  with 
the  popular  Osirian  religion  which  had  never  ceased 
to  influence  the  masses.  A  period  of  literalism  then 
set  in,  when  the  religion  of  the  distant  past  was  con- 
sidered the  ideal.  Amon-Ea  was  still  the  state  god, 
but  many  deities,  domestic  and  foreign,  were  added 
to  his  train.  The  gods  became  so  numerous,  cere- 
monies became  so  burdensome,  and  the  state  became 
so  impotent,  that  Amon-Ea  receded  into  the  back- 
ground. This  was  inevitable.  Ea  and  Anion  were 
created  and  sustained  by  a  state  idea.  They  were  the 
gods  of  rulers  and  aristocrats.  With  the  coming  of  the 
Persians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Bomans,  Egyptian 
royal  power  passed  away.  But  the  god  who  remained 
to  the  last,  and  who  "carried  on"  even  after  the 
fall  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  was  Osiris.  He  had 
gained  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  which 
he  never  was  displaced.  And  even  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity,  the  ideas  and  ideals  that  had 
clustered  around  the  eternal  and  immortal  judge  and 
god  persisted  and  interwove  themselves  into  the  very 
fibre  of  the  new  religion. 

In  order  to  arrive  at  any  adequate  conception  of 
the  Egyptian  idea  of  god,  we  must  divest  ourselves 


42  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

as  much  as  possible  of  our  own  modern  conceptions. 
The  idea  of  god  must  be  simplified,  for  god  was  to 
the  Egyptians  just  what  the  Egyptians  could  imagine 
about  a  divine  being.  But  he  was  also  everything  that 
they  could  possibly  imagine  in  the  way  of  perfection. 

The  Egyptians  ascribed  the  best  they  knew  to  their 
gods.  Their  idea  of  the  universe,  of  its  extent  and 
nature,  was  limited.  The  gulf  between  the  human 
and  super-human  was  very  narrow.  Man's  greatness 
and  god's  greatness  were  not  far  apart.  The  gods 
had  the  same  attributes  and  characteristics  as  men, 
only  in  the  superlative.  A  god  was  an  enlarged 
human  being,  not  capable  of  being  seen  at  all  times, 
but  still  visible.  He  was  clothed  with  man's  most 
sublime  ideals.  According  to  our  idea  of  perfection, 
he  was  not  perfect,  but  he  was  all  that  the  Egyptian 
could  imagine  as  appropriate  to  the  greatest  and  most 
important  of  all  classes  of  beings. 

From  a  modern  point  of  view,  the  Egyptian  gods 
were  anthropomorphic.  They  possessed  man's  char- 
acteristics, because  the  Egyptians  could  not  conceive 
of  anything  better  or  higher.  The  gods  in  this  world, 
at  any  rate,  were  mortal.  Ea  grew  old  and  Osiris 
was  slain.  Orion  enjoyed  hunting,  slaying,  and  eat- 
ing the  gods.  The  gods  suffered,  and  took  revenge. 
They  were  not  omniscient,  but  were  obliged  to  inves- 
tigate in  order  to  be  informed.  They  were  controlled 
by  magic,  and  were  obliged  to  use  human  agencies 
in  the  accomplishment  of  their  tasks.  In  short,  they 
were  constituted  as  men,  only  endowed  with  super- 
lative powers;  for  example,  some  of  the  gods  had  as 
many  as  seventy-seven  ears  and  seventy-seven  eyes. 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  43 

But  of  course  this  conception  was  due  to  the  need  of 
explaining  how  the  gods  could  hear  and  see  all  men 
at  all  times. 

Some  gods  were  greater  than  others;  but  they  be^ 
came  so  because  of  the  power  and  influence  of  their 
clients.  Each  community  believed  that  its  god  was 
creator,  sustainer,  and  preserver,  all  in  one.  But 
when  the  official  priesthood  tried  to  systematize  the- 
ological thinking,  the  greatest  god  of  the  system  be- 
came the  creator.  Thus  at  Heliopolis,  Ea  was  creator ; 
at  Thebes,  it  was  Amon;  and  at  Memphis,  it  was 
Ptah. 

For  prehistoric  Egypt,  the  term  polytheism,  or 
better  henotheism,  describes  the  nature  of  the  theol- 
ogy. Every  village,  town,  or  community  had  its  god. 
Such  a  god  was  usually  considered  the  greatest  of 
all  gods.  That  was  henotheism.  But  when  people 
worshipped  a  god  whom  they  did  not  consider  the 
greatest  of  all,  they  were  polytheists.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  most  primitive  races  are  henotheistic.  With  the 
amalgamation  of  several  smaller  centres  of  population 
into  a  larger  centre,  the  gods  were  either  amalgamated 
into  the  personality  of  the  strongest  and  most  influ- 
ential god  of  the  whole  group,  or  there  was  formed  a 
family  or  community  of  gods.  But  whatever  hap- 
pened, henotheism  remained. 

The  older  students  of  Egyptian  religion  used  to 
declare  that  the  earliest  Egyptians  were  monotheists. 
They  based  their  conclusions  upon  such  circumstances 
as  the  use  of  the  term  "god"  or  "my  god"  unaccom- 
panied by  any  proper  name.  But  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion will  show  that  any  individual  may  refer  to  any 


44  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

single  god  in  such  a  way  without  implying  in  the 
least  that  that  particular  god  was  the  only  one  who 
existed.  Further  study  of  the  Egyptian  texts  them- 
selves abundantly  substantiates  this  reflection.  It 
perhaps  cannot  even  be  asserted  beyond  doubt  that 
Ikhnaton  had  conceived  of  the  existence  of  only  one 
god.  It  is  true  that  he  referred  to  Aton  as  filling 
"every  land"  with  his  beauty,  of  being  great  and 
"high  above  every  land";  and  that  he  declared  that 
when  Aton  sets,  "the  world  is  in  silence";  but  this 
may  conceivably  have  been  said  by  a  man  who  be- 
lieved that  for  his  own  country  there  was  no  other 
god;  but  would  he  have  thereby  denied  the  existence 
of  the  gods  of  the  Asiatics,  Nubians,  and  Hittites  ? 

There  is,  however,  one  passage  in  the  shorter  hymns 
of  Ikhnaton  which  would  seem  to  prove  a  clear  case 
of  monotheistic  faith.    It  reads : 

"How  manifold  are  thy  works! 
They  are  hidden  from  before   (us), 
0  sole  god,  beside  whom  there  is  no  other." 

But  the  longer  poem  reads  for  the  third  line: 
"0  sole  god,  whose  powers  no  other  possesseth." 

Moreover,  although  Ikhnaton  ruthlessly  caused  the 
name  of  Anion  to  be  erased  and  hammered  out  of  all 
inscriptions,  he  allowed  Ba's  name  to  remain.  It 
would  seem  that  his  object  was  to  restore  a  purer 
form  of  the  religion  of  Ra.  If  so,  he  may  have  con- 
sidered Ra  and  Aton  one  and  the  same  god.  In  fact, 
in  one  of  his  hymns  he  addresses  Aton  thus : 

"Thou  art  Ra,  and  thou  takest  them  all  captive." 
In  an  inscription  dated  in  his  sixth  year,  he  causes 
himself  to  be  referred  to  as,  "Favorite  of  the  two 


The  Idea  of  Cod  in  Egypt  45 

goddesses/'  but  this  may  have  been  merely  a  stereo- 
typed title,  which  was  emptied  of  all  theological 
colour. 

Whatever  may  be  the  final  verdict*  as  to  the  nature 
of  Ikhnaton' s  theology,  his  contribution  to  religious 
thought  furnishes  a  highwater  mark  for  Egypt.  His 
conception  of  a  god  who  created  all  things,  and  upon 
whom  all  things  depend,  who  swayed  Syria  and  Kush 
equally  with  Egypt,  comes  not  far  short,  if  at  all,  of  a 
true  monotheistic  faith.  Nor  were  the  moral  elements 
lacking,  as  we  shall  see  in  another  place,  in  order  to 
make  it  an  ethical  monotheism. 

Other  high  theological  conceptions  have  been  cred- 
ited to  the  Egyptians  by  students  of  Egyptology,  such 
as  the  oneness  and  eternity  of  god.  Maspero  has  said : 
"The  Eg}rptian  adored  a  being  who  was  unique,  per- 
fect, endowed  with  absolute  knowledge  and  intelli- 
gence, and  incomprehensible  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  passes  man's  powers  to  state  in  what  he  is  incom- 
prehensible." f  This  is  partly  true,  for  the  Egyp- 
tians believed  all  gods  to  be  perfect,  and  endowed 
with  all  knowledge  and  intelligence.  They  ascribed 
the  best  they  know  to  their  gods.  So  did  the  Baby- 
lonians, Assyrians,  Hindus,  and  Chinese.  But  they 
did  not  believe  any  god  to  be  unique  in  the  sense 
of  being  the  only  divine  being  in  existence.  With 
the   possible   exception   of   Ikhnaton,    such    an   idea 


*  See  an  article  by  the  author,  "Was  Ikhnaton  a  Monothe- 
ist",  in  the  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Oriental  Research,  Oct., 
1919. 

f  G.  Maspero.  Etudes  de  Mythologie  et  d'Archeologie 
egyptiennes,  II,  446. 


46  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

was    absolutely    foreign    to   the    thought   of   ancient 

Egypt. 

The  Egyptians  developed  very  high  conceptions  of 
the  gods.  The  two  chief  causes  of  this  were  their 
high  regard  of  divine  law  and  their  belief  in  divine 
kingship.  The  power  of  the  gods  was  ever  with  them, 
and  operative  in  their  daily  thought.  But  while 
their  conceptions  of  divine  justice  became  highly  de- 
veloped, they  never  arrived  at  any  adequate  idea  of 
the  omnipotence,  omniscience,  love,  or  holiness  of 
god.  Even  Ikhnaton  has  nothing  to  say  about  the 
love  and  holiness  of  god,  nor  of  his  transcendence. 
In  fact,  the  closer  one  examines  Ikhnaton's  theology, 
the  more  one  feels  that  what  he  had  in  mind  was  the 
material  sun,  which  is  the  source  and  sustainer  of 
everything  in  the  world — not  a  transcendent,  spirit- 
ual personality,  but  an  universal  force  which  pervades 
the  whole  world.  In  other  words,  Ikhnaton's  religion 
was  perhaps  nothing  more  than  a  physical  pantheism 
whose  power  was  concentrated  in  the  physical  sun. 

The  Egyptian  idea  of  god  had  gradually  developed 
from  a  primitive  and  crude  anthropomorphism  to  a 
spiritual  and  ethical  henotheism,  and  perhaps  to  a 
practical  monotheism.  This  took  place  over  six  hun- 
dred years  before  the  Hebrew  prophets  declared  the 
oneness  and  uniqueness  of  Jehovah  the  God  of  Israel. 
And  it  can  be  said  without  any  exaggeration  that 
Egypt  gave  to  the  world  its  first  lessons  in  the  art  of 
thinking  in  terms  of  spiritual  and  ethical  divinity. 
She  was  thus  the  first  and  one  of  the  greatest  of 
schoolmasters  to  lead  men  to  Christ. 


IV 


THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  IN  EGYPT 

A  Hebrew  psalmist  once  sang  of  the  dignity  and 
greatness  of  man,  who  was  made  only  a  little  lower 
than  the  sons  of  God,  and  another  Hebrew  writer 
told  about  how  man  was  made  in  the  image  and  like- 
ness of  God.  All  such  ideas  as  these  were  obvious  to 
the  Egyptians;  more  obvious  to  them  than  to  the 
Hebrews.  The  late  Hebrews  had  transferred  their 
god  entirely  to  the  heavens.  They  had  transcendent- 
alized  and  spiritualized  him.  They  had  made  him 
an  august  being,  whom  no  human  eyes  could  behold, 
who  was  a  pure  spirit,  and  such  as  no  man  could 
approach  unto.  The  Egyptians,  on  the  contrary, 
always  were  conscious  of  the  humanness  of  their 
gods.  The  gulf  between  gods  and  men  was  very 
narrow.  Mankind  was  directly  linked  to  gods  by  the 
god-manifesting  king.  Man  was  the  highest  of  the 
god's  human  creatures,  and  was,  moreover,  the  very 
offspring  of  the  gods. 

The  creation  of  the  world,  of  which  man  was  a 

part,  was  variously  understood  by  the  early  Egyptians. 

The  sun-worshippers  of  Heliopolis  believed  that  Nu, 

the  primeval  watery  chaos,  existed  at  the  beginning 

47 


48  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

of  time.  Out  of  it  sprang  Ra,  who  was  Khepri  at 
dawn,  Ra  at  high  noon,  and  Turn  (or  Atum)  at 
eventide.  But  Ra  was  greater  than  Nu,  inasmuch 
as  Ra  was  a  great  divine  personality,  while  Nu  was 
primarily  that  primeval  watery  substance  whose  only 
function  was  to  produce  Ra.  Mankind  was  then 
brought  forth  from  the  eye  of  Ra,  and  Ra  then  became 
the  first  king  upon  earth,  and  the  succeeding  pharaohs 
were  sons  of  Ra.  Other  worshippers  of  Ra  believed 
that  the  god  was  produced  in  the  form  of  an  egg  by 
Geb,  the  great  cackler;  and  still  others  believed  that 
he  was  the  son  of  the  celestial  cow.  At  Elephantine, 
Khnum  was  believed  to  have  created  the  world  and 
mankind;  at  Memphis,  the  creator  was  Ptah,  who 
brought  things  and  men  into  being  by  the  power  of 
moat;  at  Thebes,  Amon-Ra  was  the  great  creator 
of  all  the  world  and  man;  and  at  Hermopolis,  Thoth, 
by  the  word  of  his  mouth,  called  all  creation  into 
being.  And  the  worshippers  of  Osiris  believed  him 
to  be  the  creator-god. 

There  was  a  generally  believed  theory  of  creation 
to  the  effect  that  at  the  beginning  of  things  Nut,  the 
sky-goddess,  and  Geb,  the  earth-god,  existed  in  close 
embrace.  Shu,  the  atmosphere  god,  intervened  be- 
tween the  two  deities,  and  lifted  Nut  on  high. 

The  methods  of  creation  are  varied.  According  to 
some  accounts  there  was  a  series  of  births,  which  pro- 
duced the  gods,  who,  in  turn,  created  mankind  out  of 
blood,  tears  or  saliva,  and  earth ;  according  to  others, 
things  were  created  in  an  artificial  way,  by  an  artisan, 
such  as  Ptah  or  Khnum;  according  to  still  others, 


The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt  49 

the  method  was  the  spoken  word,  which  when  uttered 
produced  existence. 

The  human  individual  presented  many  problems  to 
the  mind  of  the  early  Egyptian.  Beside  the  body 
(hhat),  the  Egyptian  felt  sure  that  many  other  ele- 
ments went  to  make  up  the  individual.  There  was 
the  la  or  soul,  which  could  be  seen  at  death  when  it 
left  the  body  in  the  form  of  a  human-headed  bird. 
During  life  it  was  an  intangible  essence,  associated 
with  the  breath,  like  the  Greek  iftvxrj .  Besides 
that  there  was  the  ha,  a  kind  of  ghostly  double  or 
genius  or  power,  which  was  given  to  each  person 
at  birth.  A  man  and  his  ha  had  definite  relationships. 
So  long  as  he  was  master  of  his  ha  he  lived,  but  as 
soon  as  he  died  the  ha  began  a  separate  existence, 
resembling  the  body  to  which  it  had  been  attached, 
and  requiring  food  for  its  subsistence.  Then  there 
was  the  ran  or  name,  which  had  a  separate  existence, 
and  seemed  to  have  been  the  underlying  and  perma- 
nent substance  of  all  things.  Besides  these  there  were 
the  hhu  or  intelligence,  the  ab  or  heart  (will  and  in- 
tention), the  sahhem  or  ruling  power  of  man,  the 
hhaylet  or  shadow,  the  ihh  or  glorified  being,  and 
the  sahu  or  mummy. 

The  most  important  of  all  these  elements  was  the 
ha,  which  became  the  centre  of  the  cult  of  the  dead, 
for  to  a  man's  ha  all  offerings  were  made,  and  those 
persons  endowed  to  carry  on  offerings  to  the  dead 
were  called  "servants  of  the  Ka".  Even  the  gods  had 
their  ha's  as  well  as  their  &a's. 

This   complicated   psychology   of   the   Egyptians, 


50  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

together  with  their  emphasis  upon  death  and  the 
hereafter,  has  led  many  students  to  describe  the 
Egyptians  as  a  most  sanguine  and  nervous  people, 
exceedingly  pessimistic  and  gloomy.  But  nothing 
could  be  further  from  truth.  The  Egyptians  could 
be  serious  and  gloomy  on  occasions,  but  their  literary 
remains  and  especially  their  monuments  show  them 
to  have  been  a  very  buoyant,  happy,  and  even  gay 
people.  And  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  large  part 
of  our  information  is  derived  from  a  study  of  tombs 
and  mortuary  temples,  the  picture  given  even  there 
is  one  of  an  exceedingly  happy  and  light-hearted 
people,  who  too  often,  perhaps,  followed  the  ancient 
advice  to  "eat,  drink,  and  be  merry".  In  all  periods, 
Egyptian  literature  bubbles  over  with  advice  to  be 
merry  while  life  lasts.  Imhotep  recommends  as 
much  happiness  as  possible  in  this  life ;  a  poet  of  the 
twentieth  century  before  Christ  says:  "Walk  after 
thy  heart's  desire  so  long  as  thou  livest.  Put  myrrh 
on  thy  head,  clothe  thyself  in  fine  linen,  anoint  thy- 
self with  the  true  marvels  of  God — with  smiling  face, 
let  thy  days  be  happy" ;  a  priest  of  the  fourteenth 
century  said:  "Come,  songs  and  music  are  before 
thee.  Set  behind  thee  all  cares;  think  only  upon 
gladness"  ;  and  a  Ptolemaic  writer  said  :  "Follow  thy 
desire  by  night  and  by  day.  Put  not  care  within  thy 
heart". 

Happiness  and  light-heartedness  penetrated  all 
walks  of  life.  Sowing  and  reaping,  threshing  and 
garnering  were  all  done  to  the  accompaniment  of 
song  and  music.  Love  songs  were  common — full  of 
joy  and  happiness.    Among  all  classes,  rich  and  poor, 


The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt  5 1 

high  and  low,  official  and  peasant,  the  imagination 
was  given  full  rein.  So  long  as  they  were  able  to 
transcend  the  drudgery  of  daily  toil,  and  to  trans- 
port themselves,  in  the  midst  of  stern  realities,  to 
happier  scenes  beyond  the  power  of  official  or  task- 
master, the  Egyptians  were  happy.  And  this  they 
were  well  able  to  do  by  the  exercise  of  their  good 
memories  and  vivid  imaginations.  So  long  as  they 
used  these  natural  gifts,  not  any  task-master  or 
oppressive  pharaoh  but  idealism  was  their  guide. 
Priests  were  an  exceedingly  merry  lot;  tombs  and 
temples  were  painted  with  joyous  scenes;  flowers 
played  a  large  part  in  all  decorations;  bright  colours 
were  universal;  gaudy  garments  suited  happy  dis- 
positions ;  folk-tales  were  full  of  mirth  and  laughter ; 
comic  pictures  and  caricatures  were  tastefully  satis- 
fying; music,  singing,  and  dancing  were  always  a 
delight;  and  buffoonery  was  highly  enjoyed.  Even  the 
names  they  gave  their  children  show  their  joyous 
temperament.  Such  names  were:  "Eyes-of-love", 
"Cool-breeze",  "Beautiful-morning".  And  in  all 
kinds  of  religious  services,  singing  and  dancing  and 
drinking  were  necessary  features.  In  fact,  there  is 
so  much  evidence  of  their  light-heartedness,  that  they 
have  been  called  a  depraved  people.  But  taking  all 
things  into  consideration  they  were,  as  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  see,  a  pious  and  god-fearing  people.  They 
were  not  puritanical.  Their  religious  philosophy  was 
not  of  that  type.  Their  conception  of  god  would  not 
tolerate  it.  But  whether  at  their  feasts,  in  their  daily 
occupations,  in  their  sports,  or  in  their  devotions  to 
their  dead   and  to  their  gods,   they  were  not   only 


52  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

serious  and  earnest,  but  also  happy  and  gay,  light- 
hearted  and  joyous. 

In  spite  of  their  devotion  to  the  good  things  of  this 
life,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  the  visionary  about  the 
Egyptians.  They  had  sufficient  insight  into  the  world 
of  spirit  around  them  to  allow  themselves  to  be  guided 
to  a  considerable  extent  by  what  they  considered  un- 
seen and  unknown  forces.  The  true  visionary  is  the 
man  who  can  see  above  and  beyond  himself  and  his 
own  times.  He  can  reach  out  beyond  human  possi- 
bilities. This  the  Egyptian  had  learned  to  do  well. 
At  a  very  early  period  in  his  development  he  became 
aware  of  a  world  of  spiritual  forces  about  him  which 
he  called  gods.  With  them  he  made  covenants — 
agreements  that  were  sometimes  considerably  material 
and  self-centred,  like  the  Hebrew  Jacob,  who  bar- 
gained with  his  god,  saying,  "If  god  will  keep  me 
in  the  way  that  I  go  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat 
and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my 
father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  Jehovah  be  my 
god".  It  was  a  shrewd  and  crafty  bargain,  but  it 
shows  that  Jacob  was  convinced  that  gods  had  to 
be  reckoned  with.  In  a  similar  way  the  Egyptian 
allied  himself  closely  with  his  god,  worshipped, 
praised,  and  sacrificed  to  him.  His  alliance  was  a 
permanent  one  and  a  heart-felt  one.  His  god  was 
ever  with  him,  and  never  far  from  him.  There  were 
innumerable  demons  ready  to  punish  and  afflict  with 
disease  and  calamity,  but  with  the  aid  of  his  god  he 
was  always  sure  of  protection. 

And  if  need  arose  he  could,  by  the  aid  of  magic 
force,  compel  the  gods  to  help  him.     Not  because  he 


The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt  53 

thought  that  magic  was  a  human  force  superior  to 
the  gods,  but  because  he  thought  it  was  a  divine  force 
which  was  capable  of  being  used  against  divine 
beings.  He  believed  the  gods  to  be  supreme  in  power, 
and  only  divine  power  could  operate  against  divine 
power.  Like  the  Hebrew  Job,  he  believed  that  only 
god  could  help  him  against  god,  only  god  could  be 
surety  to  god. 

This  control  of  divine  power  often  rendered  a 
human  being  very  powerful,  hence  kingly  and  priestly 
power.  Human  possibilities  were  almost  limitless. 
In  fact,  man  was  not  only  created  little  lower  than 
the  sons  of  the  gods,  but  on  occasion  he  could  become 
divine.  The  kings  were  gods,  and  exercised  divine 
power ;  so  were  such  men  as  Amenhotep  and  Imhotep ; 
and  any  dead  person  may  become  a  god  with  all  divine 
powers  and  attributes. 

Already  in  the  age  when  the  Pyramid  Texts  were 
written,  men  looked  back  to  a  golden  era,  "before 
death  came  forth",  and  when  "strife",  "voice",  "blas- 
phemy", and  "conflict"  were  unknown.  These  and 
other  passages  in  the  Pyramid  Texts  and  other  litera- 
ture show  the  consciousness  of  sin  and  a  dislike  and 
fear  of  it.  Sin  was  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  the 
gods.    It  brought  forth  pain  and  suffering. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Egyptians  considered 
suffering  in  any  sense  desirable.  They  strove  for  the 
blessing  of  their  gods,  but  they  did  not  seem  to  have 
understood  that  blessings  often  come  in  the  form  of 
hereditary  disabilities,  whether  mental,  moral,  or 
physical ;  and  that  they  are  often  to  be  derived  from 
what  we  sometimes  consider  hard  lot,  failure,  or  dis- 


54  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

couragement.  They  apparently  had  not  yet  learned 
that  border  ruffians  may  be  turned  into  border 
guards,  that  we  may  use  our  difficulties  as  instruments 
to  carve  out  our  destiny,  and  that  our  failures  may 
become  stepping-stones  to  higher  things  if  we  see  that 
they  do  not  convert  themselves  into  stumbling  blocks. 
They  evidently  had  not  learned  the  lesson  taught  in 
the  story  of  Jacob's  wrestling  with  the  angel,  that 
wrestling  is  always  the  condition  of  blessing,  and 
that  every  difficulty  is  a  blessing  in  disguise.  These 
things  they  had  not  yet  learned,  but  they  were  on 
the  road,  for  they  believed  that  all  such  affliction  came 
from  a  superhuman  source,  and  they  tried  to  fight 
it  with  divine  weapons. 

Egyptian  consciousness  of  sin  was  keen  enough — 
sin  as  a  transgression  of  the  will  of  the  gods,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Egyptian  considered  it 
necessary  to  atone  for  it  or  to  be  forgiven.  He  knew 
that  the  gods  disapproved  of  certain  conduct,  and 
that  what  the  gods  disapproved  of  was  sinful,  but 
once  a  sin  or  wrong  was  committed  he  did  not  seem 
to  think  that  anything  could  be  done  until  he  ap- 
peared before  the  forty-two  judges  in  the  after-world, 
and  then  it  seems  that  he  thought  his  good  deeds 
would  be  so  numerous  as  to  be  capable  of  outweighing 
his  wrongs.  He  trusted  to  his  positive  goodness  to 
satisfy  his  examiners.  Hence,  in  Egyptian  literature 
there  is  no  trace  of  sacrifice  or  expiation  for  sin,  and 
no  evidence  that  any  rite  was  performed  with  that 
end  in  view. 

One  of  the  best  arguments  for  the  depth  of  Egyp- 
tian culture  is  the  impression  which  nature  always 


The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt  55 

made  upon  the  mind  of  the  people.  Their  great 
works  of  art  abundantly  show  how  keenly  they  appre- 
ciated the  birds  and  beasts,  the  trees  and  flowers,  the 
rivers  and  streams,  the  valleys  and  hills.  Nature 
covenanted  with  the  people  and  the  people  with  na- 
ture. The  very  sands  of  the  desert  and  boulders  of 
the  hills  responded  to  the  spiritual  and  cultural  life 
of  the  people.  Just  after  the  Israelites  had  crossed 
the  Jordan,  Joshua  assembled  them  together  to  ren- 
der thanks  to  Jehovah  for  his  deliverance  of  them. 
He  then  took  a  large  stone,  which  he  set  up  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembled  throng,  and  declared  that 
it  would  witness  to  future  generations  the  covenant 
relationship  between  Jehovah  and  his  people.  The 
great  Hebrew  leader  said:  "Behold  this  stone  shall 
be  a  witness  unto  us ;  for  it  hath  heard  all  the  words 
of  Jehovah  which  he  spake  unto  us".  In  like  manner 
that  which  has  fascinated  the  world  from  the  time 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  tourists  and  travellers  to  our 
own  day  is  the  witness  which  the  very  stones  of  Egypt 
bear  to  the  greatness  of  her  mighty  past.  For  just 
as  Moriah  is  Moriah  because  of  Abraham,  and  the 
Mount  of  Olives  is  Olivet  because  of  Christ,  and  Flan- 
ders Field  is  Flanders  Field  because  of  the  immortal 
challenge  to  "take  up  our  quarrel  with  the  foe"  and 
because  of  the  noble  dead  which  lie  there  "between 
the  crosses  row  on  row",  so  Egypt  is  Egypt  because 
of  the  impression  which  her  great  people,  from  the 
time  before  Menes  to  that  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
made  upon  her  hills  and  dales,  her  rivers  and  streams, 
her  cities  and  villages.  Who  can  pass  through  her 
sacred  temples  and  storied  halls  and  not  feel  the  touch 


56  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

of   her   mighty   past,    the   magic    of   her    matchless 
memory  ? 

Xor  were  the  ancient  Egyptians  forgetful  of  that 
which  makes  any  civilization  worth  while — the  sense 
of  the  brotherhood  of  citizenship  and  mutual  asso- 
ciation and  help.  The  man  on  the  other  side  of  the 
street  was  not  neglected.  The  precepts  of  Ptah-Hotep 
show  how  solicitous  the  Egyptian  was  of  the  well- 
being  and  happiness  of  his  neighbour.  Experience 
had  taught  him  that  he  was  his  brother's  keeper,  that 
he  was  responsible  for  the  way  in  which  the  old  world 
wags,  and  that  this  responsibility  constituted  a  duty. 
Of  course,  there  were  many  individuals  here  and  there 
who  so  inadequately  considered  the  subject  of  duty 
as  to  be  unaware  of  its  true  nature,  but  the  social 
teachers  of  the  Middle  Kingdom  were  fully  alive  to 
the  necessity  of  making  the  subject  of  neighbourly 
responsibility  well  known.  They  realized  that  the 
"Shadow  of  Peter  passing  by"  may  blight  as  well  as 
bless,  and  the  "Admonitions  of  an  Egyptian  Sage" 
as  well  as  the  "Precepts  of  Ptah-Hotep"  are  full  of 
warning  and  advice.  The  Egyptian  also  knew  that 
in  a  dispute  about  right  and  justice,  he  could  count 
upon  his  superiors  to  defend  his  cause.  The  "Com- 
plaint of  the  Peasant"  is  crowded  with  eloquent,  bold- 
ness which  would  never  have  been  dared  if  he  did  not 
feel  sure  of  the  effect  its  plea  for  justice  would  have 
upon  the  Grand  Steward  himself,  and  the  response 
which  he  knew  would  be  found  in  the  heart  of  the 
administrators  of  justice.  It  was  his  consciousness 
of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  and  more  especially  his 
belief  in  his  superiors'  sense  of  justice,  which  gave 


The  Idea  of  Man  in  Egypt  57 

him  the  courage  to  speak  with  such  frankness  and 
boldness.  He  was  not  reckless,  nor  even  daring,  but 
courageous  in  the  sense  of  his  own  right  and  in  the 
faith  of  his  judge's  integrity. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  previous  to 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  when  Egyptian  civilisation  was 
about  at  its  height,  a  long  period  of  at  least  two  thou- 
sand years  of  slow  development  had  elapsed.  There 
were  then  all  the  elements  present  to  guarantee  a  de- 
velopment. There  was  the  pressure  from  without  and 
the  contest  from  within,  the  competition  and  rivalry 
which  always  spell  progress.  And  although  the  Egyp- 
tians had  never  developed  that  sense  of  equality  in  a 
common  task  which  characterized  the  peoples  of  the 
West,  they,  nevertheless,  were  conscious  of  the  equal 
right  of  every  man  everywhere  to  progress,  which 
perhaps  is,  after  all,  the  only  fundamentally  true 
equality.  That  that  consciousness  existed  among 
them  is  undoubted,  as  the  "Complaint  of  the  Peas- 
ant" and  other  early  writings  abundantly  show.  The 
peasant  did  not  consider  himself  equal  to  the  pharaoh, 
nor  the  petty  official  to  the  great  baron,  but  each 
man  demanded  the  right  to  make  as  much  progress 
as  possible — as  much  as  his  particular  talents,  gifts, 
and  circumstances  would  warrant. 


V 


THE  IDEA  OF  MEDIATION  IN  EGYPT 

The  most  fundamental  idea  of  mediation  in  an- 
cient Egypt  connected  itself  with  the  person  of  the 
god-manifesting  pharaoh.  When  Ba  receded  to 
heaven  a  human  king  reigned  as  his  son  and  heir. 
He  represented  the  people  before  the  gods  and  the 
gods  to  the  people.  The  king  remained  in  Egypt  the 
only  representative  between  gods  and  men.  The  so- 
called  messianic  passage  in  the  "Admonitions  of  an 
Egyptian  Sage"  and  the  si-na-sa  ("son  of  man")  of 
the  Hermitage  papyrus  throw  very  little  light  upon 
the  mediation  idea.  These  passages  point  forward  to 
a  time  when  there  would  be  an  ideal  king,  when  ideal 
conditions  would  prevail,  but,  be  it  noted  that  the 
ideal  person  is  to  be  a  king.  The  king  was  always 
the  mediator. 

Even  when  the  priesthood  developed,  and  offerings 
were  continually  made  to  the  gods  on  behalf  of  man- 
kind, the  priests  were  not  the  mediators,  for  they 
merely  represented  the  king.  Their  offerings  were 
made  in  the  name  of  the  king.  And  this  was  so  uni- 
versally and  consistently  true  in  Egypt  that  the 
phrase,  "an  offering  which  the  king  makes",  came  to 

58 


The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt  59 

mean  any  and  every  offering.  The  priests  offered 
sacrifices,  approached  the  gods,  mediated  between 
man  and  god  solely  in  the  name  of  the  king.  This 
was  inevitable.  For  while  in  the  earliest  and  smallest 
communities  the  head  of  the  tribe  or  family  was  nat- 
urally the  mediator  and  was  the  only  one  who  ever 
acted  in  that  capacity,  in  later  times  when  the  fami- 
lies became  clans,  and  clans  developed  into  national 
states,  the  king  could  no  more  offer  all  sacrifices  and 
appear  personally  in  all  cases  of  mediation.  The 
result  was  that  others  were  made  priests,  that  an 
order  of  priests  arose.  But,  in  Egypt,  the  priesthood 
never  absorbed  the  function  of  mediation  as  its  own. 
It  always  merely  represented  the  king.  The  priests 
were  the  king's  substitute.  Even  when  the  priesthood 
seized  the  throne  in  the  Twenty-first  Dynasty,  sacri- 
fice remained  the  peculiar  function  of  the  pharaoh 
through  his  representatives  the  priests. 

Nor  did  the  deification  of  Amenhotep  and  Imhotep 
furnish  mediators.  The  idea  of  mediation  which 
prevailed  later  in  Christianity  found  no  place  in 
Egyptian  thought.  Nor  did  the  Jewish  idea  of 
mediatorial  angels  and  semi-divine  agencies,  such  as 
Memra  and  Metatron,  find  any  favour  with  the  Egyp- 
tians. This  was  due  to  the  divine  or  semi-divine 
character  of  the  pharaoh.  There  was  thus  in  Egypt 
no  need  of  a  special  incarnate  god.  That  every 
pharaoh  was.  Nor  was  there  any  need  of  angels,  who 
would  mediate  between  god  and  man;  nor  of  deified 
agencies.  The  necessity  felt  for  all  these  by  other 
peoples  found  its  satisfaction  in  the  mediatorial  func- 


60  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

tion  of  the  "son  of  Ra",  the  "good  god",  the  god- 
manifesting  pharaoh. 

Prophecy  as  distinguished  from  the  priesthood 
never  developed.  The  term  lin-ntr  means  priest  and 
not  prophet,  or  "prophet"  only  in  so  far  as  it  entirely 
corresponds  to  "priest".  In  later  times  the  Egyptians 
attempted  to  gain  oracles  from  the  gods.  Among  the 
Hebrews  the  official  mediation  in  such  cases  was  made 
by  the  prophet  or  the  seer.  But  in  Egypt,  the  priest 
was  the  mediating  official,  that  is,  the  priest  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  king.  Thus  the  oracles  communicated 
in  the  temples  by  nods  or  other  signs,  or  by  dreams, 
were  manipulated  by  the  priests  of  Amon-Ra.  Such 
oracles,  however,  never  became  popular.  Whenever 
they  were  invoked  it  was  for  political  purposes. 

In  Egypt,  the  official  or  state  religion  must  always 
be  carefully  differentiated  from  the  popular  religion. 
The  type  of  the  former  was  the  religion  of  Ra,  and 
that  of  the  latter  was  the  religion  of  Osiris,  although 
Ra  was  to  an  extent  popular,  just  as  Osiris  was  to 
a  certain  degree  official. 

In  the  earliest  times  every  town  had  a  temple 
("house  of  the  god")  of  the  local  god.  The  temple 
was  served  by  priests.  Associated  with  the  local  god 
were  usually  a  mother-goddess  and  a  son.  The  order 
of  divine  service  was  about  the  same  everywhere. 
The  priests  began  with  acts  of  purification,  purifying 
themselves  as  well  as  the  statues  of  the  gods.  Then 
offerings  were  made,  which  were  followed  by  a  proces- 
sion of  the  gods.  Music  and  dancing  accompanied 
the  various  ceremonies,  and  the  singing  of  hymns  was 
a  common  feature. 


The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt  61 

Offerings  consisted  chiefly  of  animals  and  of  veg- 
etable material.  On  solemn  occasions  the  eating  of 
a  specimen  of  the  sacred  animal  at  stated  intervals 
took  place,  such  as  the  bull  at  Memphis  and  the  ram 
at  Thebes.  In  early  times  the  animals  most  fre- 
quently sacrificed  were  the  gazelle,  the  antelope,  and 
the  wild  goat.  And  the  burnt  offering  of  animals 
continued  down  to  the  fifth  century  before  Christ. 
Burning  of  incense  was  commoner  in  early  than  in 
later  times.  The  animal  sacrifice  largely  took  its 
place  after  the  Middle  Kingdom.  In  early  times 
human  sacrifice  was  practised,  but  it  was  discon- 
tinued under  the  Ramesids. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  priest  par  excellence 
was  the  pharaoh.  But  according  as  the  duties  of  the 
priesthood  multiplied,  they  had  to  be  delegated  to 
others.  These  were  always  merely  representatives 
of  the  king.  After  the  Middle  Kingdom,  however, 
the  priesthood  became  a  regular  order,  of  several 
divisions.  One  was  called  the  kherheb,  consisting  of 
priests  who  recited  the  sacred  text ;  another  was  called 
the  wab,  consisting  of  those  who  offered  sacrifice. 
This  latter  was  divided  into  classes,  each  one  of  which 
served  for  a  quarter  of  a  year.  At  the  head  of  the 
different  classes  stood  chief-priests  ("servants  of  the 
god"),  there  being  usually  one  for  each  temple.  Be- 
sides all  these  were  sub-priests,  "openers"  of  the 
shrines,  who  also  made  offerings  of  incense  and  liba- 
tions. The  priests  were  often  referred  to  as  "divine 
fathers",  and  in  time  were  granted  semi-hereditary 
privileges  and  duties.  They  were  very  attentive  to 
cleanliness,  wore  white  linen,  shaved  their  heads,  ab- 


62  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

stained  from  fish  and  beans,  and  were  probably  cir- 
cumcised. Many  of  them  were  pluralists,  but  received 
their  living  from  temple  revenues,  stipends  being 
paid  in  kind. 

From  time  to  time  the  priests  became  very  power- 
ful, being  famed  as  chieftains,  and  powerful  physi- 
cians. Thutmose  III  merged  all  the  priesthoods  of 
the  country  into  one  sacerdotal  body,  headed  by  the 
priests  of  Amon-Ka.  In  the  Twenty-first  Dynasty 
they  became  powerful  enough  to  usurp  royal  power, 
Herihor  having  himself  crowned  king.  It  seems  that 
women  could  hold  some  kind  of  priestly  rank,  there 
being  priestesses  of  Hathor.  But  they  were  never 
important. 

The  Egyptian  temple  at  a  very  early  period  was 
modelled  upon  a  common  type.  It  was  shut  off  from 
the  street  by  lofty  walls,  adorned  with  religious  and 
secular  scenes.  It  was  entered  by  a  small  gateway 
between  two  pylons,  and  this  led  into  a  forecourt 
which  was  open  to  the  sky.  Then  came  the  hypostyle 
with  pylons,  which  was  used  for  processions.  Beyond 
that  was  the  dark  cella,  or  holy  of  holies,  the  dwelling 
place  of  the  god,  to  which  none  but  priests  were  ad- 
mitted. Here  was  the  image  of  the  god.  All  around 
the  cella  were  storehouses  and  sacristies.  There  was  a 
shrine  for  the  image  of  the  god,  provided  with  double 
doors  of  metal.  Every  morning  the  shrine  was  opened 
by  a  priest,  who  offered  incense,  purified  the  statue  of 
the  god,  and  presented  food  and  flowers.  Temple 
revenues  were  derived  from  endowments,  offerings, 
and  fees,  and  the  temples  were  also  subsidised  by  the 
state.     In  later  times  the  temples  became  very  rich. 


The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt  63 

Amon-Ra's  temples  were  supplied  with  numerous 
captives  and  tribute.  The  Harris  papyrus  shows  that 
nearly  one-seventh  of  all  the  lands  of  Egypt  was 
temple  property,  belonging  to  Amon  of  Thebes,  Ptah 
of  Memphis,  and  Ra  of  Heliopolis.  The  greatest  era 
of  temple  building  began  in  the  early  Ptolemaic 
period  and  continued  down  into  Roman  times.  The 
temple  of  Ra  at  Abusir  was  unique  in  that  it  was 
open  to  the  sky,  and  supplied  with  a  solar  barque  and 
obelisk. 

Besides  the  official  religion,  there  was  a  popular 
cult,  mainly  dominated  by  Osirian  ideas,  and  hence 
associated  with  the  dead.  The  masses  were  devoted 
to  it.  Tombs  were  erected  in  the  Western  Desert, 
some  of  which  were  very  elaborate.  In  the  sepulchral 
chamber  were  furniture  for  the  use  of  the  dead,  rooms 
for  the  cult,  and  walls  adorned  with  pictures.  The 
innermost  chamber  was  a  chapel,  on  the  west  side  of 
which  was  an  imitation  door,  through  which  the  dead 
passed  to  receive  their  offerings.  In  addition  to  the 
form  of  the  cult  of  the  dead,  there  was  a  form  of 
domestic  worship.  Shrines  were  erected  in  the  homes 
of  the  people,  and  ceremonies  were  performed  in  con- 
nection with  birth  and  marriage  as  well  as  with  death. 
There  were  also  wayside  shrines,  and  although  the 
laity  had  no  recognized  part  in  the  service  of  the  gods 
in  the  official  temples,  they  were  permitted  to  bring 
their  offerings  to  the  great  altar  on  all  occasions. 

Feasts  and  festivals  were  quite  common.  There 
were  the  festivals  of  fertility  and  harvest  in  October 
and  April,  and  the  great  temple  feasts,  such  as  the 
Great  Theban  Feast  of  Amon.     Each  god  had  his 


64  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

own  calendar  of  days  on  which  there  were  great  pro- 
cessions, and  when  elaborate  offerings  were  made. 
The  #ec?-festival  was  one  of  the  most  important. 
It  was  celebrated  every  thirty  years,  commemorating 
the  deification  of  the  king  as  Osiris.  Sometimes  as 
in  the  case  of  Eameses  II  this  festival  was  repeated 
every  three  years  after  the  thirtieth  year.  The  Feast 
of  the  New  Year  was  also  important.  Gifts  were 
exchanged,  and  given  to  the  dead,  and  an  illumination 
took  place  for  the  "glorification  of  the  blessed".  It 
was  a  kind  of  Feast  of  All  Souls.  The  Wag-fe&st 
took  place  on  the  eighteenth  of  the  First  month,  and 
on  its  eve.  There  were  others,  such  as  New  Year's 
Eve;  on  the  fifth  of  the  five  intercalary  days,  the 
Feast  of  the  Five  Days ;  and  minor  feasts  on  the  first 
of  every  month;  and  at  half  moon.  The  "Passion 
Play"  of  Osiris  lasted  a  number  of  days,  consisted  of 
eight  elaborate  scenes,  and  was  very  popular  among 
the  people. 

Among  a  race  who  believed  themselves  so  closely 
related  to  the  gods  as  the  Egyptians  did,  magic  was 
inevitable,  for  magic  was  primarily  the  power  of  the 
gods.  Thus,  Thoth  was  called  the  master  of  sorcery, 
and  Isis  the  mistress.  By  learning  and  understanding 
the  power  of  the  gods,  they  could  be  controlled.  Even 
Ra  himself  was  subject  to  the  control  of  magic.  At 
an  early  date  magic  attached  itself  primarily  to  the 
cure  of  disease.  Sickness  and  disease  came  from  the 
demons;  the  demons  were  inferior  to  the  gods  in 
power;  if  the  power  of  the  gods  could  be  procured  and 
operated,  the  demons  would  be  forced  to  withdraw 


The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt  65 

their  torments.    Hence,  the  elaborate  system  of  magic 
for  medicinal  purposes. 

The  method  of  magic  was  symbolic  or  imitative 
acts,  verbal  spells,  and  formulae  from  such  literature 
as  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  It  was  a  perfectly  legiti- 
mate practice  within  certain  limitations,  and  was 
recognized  officially.  It  is  often  difficult  to  know 
where  magic  ends  and  religion  begins  in  Egyptian 
custom ;  even  the  gods  were  thought  to  rule  the  world 
by  magic.  But  certain  magical  acts  were  illegal  (such 
as  making  wax  figures  of  a  man  to  hurt  him),  and 
were  strenuously  forbidden.  It  was  totally  forbidden 
by  Ikhnaton. 

The  Egyptians  loved  symbolic  acts,  but  not  for 
themselves,  rather  for  their  value  in  practical  and 
religious  life.  The  purpose  behind  the  practice  was 
what  they  valued.  They  desired  to  avoid  pain  and 
suffering  and  to  attain  happiness.  Acts  and  words  as 
symbols  not  merely  expressed  but  also  increased  and 
nourished  the  feeling  to  which  they  corresponded. 
Laughter  is  the  symbol  of  joy,  but  as  one  laughs, 
one's  laughter  reacts  upon  the  joy  and  heightens  it. 
Acts  and  words  not  only  expressed  what  was  desired 
but  they  also  were  believed  to  produce  what  was  de- 
sired. They  were  therefore  not  only  a  symbol,  but 
also  a  means  of  procuring  what  was  symbolized. 

Prayer  was  considered  a  most  common  mode  of 
communicating  with  the  gods.  But  instead  of  being 
considered  the  putting  into  practice  by  the  individual 
or  the  community  of  a  want,  it  was  thought  of  as  a 
means  of  inducing  the  particular  god  to  respond 
favourably.     The  essence  of  polytheism  produces  un- 


66  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

scientific  prayer.  The  average  modern  conception  of 
prayer,  as  a  means  of  bringing  about  a  change  in  the 
purpose  of  God,  is  a  remnant  of  polytheism.  The 
Egyptians  were  through  and  through  a  polytheistic 
people,  and  as  such  could  never  develop  the  higher 
forms  of  prayer.  Their  prayers  were  sincere,  fervent, 
full  of  hope  and  faith,  but  their  fundamental  idea  was 
selfish.  The  aim  was  to  gain  the  ear  of  a  god,  as 
powerful  a  one  as  possible.  It  was  not  that  "thy 
will"  be  done,  but  that  mine  may  prevail.  Monothe- 
ism forces  the  suppliant  to  question  his  own  unselfish- 
ness and  surrender  himself  to  the  higher  will,  knowl- 
edge, and  purpose  of  God,  but  polytheism  offers  no 
standard  of  will,  knowledge,  and  purpose.  One  god 
may  thwart  the  decision  of  another,  and  the  suppliant 
could  gamble  on  his  favourite  god's  will  and  power 
to  help. 

But  whatever  the  limitations  of  polytheism  were 
there  was  practically  no  scepticism.  The  gods  existed, 
and  it  was  man's  duty  to  worship  them.  A  duty  is 
something  which  is  owed  or  ought  to  be  done  as 
soon  and  as  thoroughly  as  possible.  All  that  a  man 
has  and  all  that  he  is  he  owes  to  the  gods.  He  may 
have  a  keen  intellect ;  he  may  be  able  to  make  fine 
moral  distinctions;  he  may  be  able  to  see  a  business 
situation  in  a  moment  and  control  it;  he  may  have 
a  fine,  strong  body ;  but  they  are  all  gifts  to  him  from 
the  gods.  He  has  received  all  that  he  has  and  all  that 
he  is  from  them,  and  he  owes  them  his  best.  The 
best  he  can  possibly  do  is  to  obey,  revere,  and  worship 
the  gods  by  offering  them  sacrifice,  rendering  them 
religious  service,  and  obeying  their  behests.    The  gulf 


The  Idea  of  Mediation  in  Egypt  67 

between  men  and  the  gods  was  bridged  over  by  wor- 
ship; the  mediatory  power  between  them  consisted 
in  filial  love  and  divine  worship. 


VI 


THE  IDEA  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  EGYPT 

It  is  given  to  all  men  once  to  die;  but  after  that, 
what?  There  was  never  an  ancient  people  who  in- 
sisted upon  believing  that  "it  is  not  death  to  die" 
with  more  emphasis  than  the  Egyptians.  The  cli- 
mate and  atmosphere  of  Egypt  both  conspired  to 
deepen  this  conviction,  if  they  were  not  in  reality 
the  origin  of  the  belief.  Death  came  often,  but  al- 
though the  body  became  inert,  it  did  not  dissolve. 
It  persisted  and,  like  all  other  natural  phenomena, 
was  the  abode  of  that  which  possessed  life.  Death 
consisted  in  a  changed  relationship  between  man's 
vital  being  and  his  body.  The  same  body  remained, 
as  also  did  the  same  vital  forces,  such  as  the  lea,  the 
ha,  the  ran,  etc.  But  their  mutual  relationship  was 
changed.  The  lea  and  the  ha  remained  just  as  inter- 
ested in  the  affairs  of  the  body  as  before,  but  they 
assumed  a  new  relationship  to  it.  In  fact,  the  chief 
duties  of  the  ha  began  only  with  the  death  of  the 
body.  It  was  a  kind  of  superior  genius  intended  to 
guide  the  fortunes  of  the  individual,  to  whom  it  was 
attached,  in  the  future  world.  It  controlled  the  per- 
son and  received  him  in  the  sky.     This  guardian 

68 


The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt  69 

angel  was  thus  a  separate  entity,  distinct  from  the 
person  to  whom  it  was  attached.  This  latter's  per- 
sonality consisted  in  the  visible  body  and  an  invisible 
intelligence  (the  ab  or  hat).  At  death  the  lea 
ascended  to  the  sky  to  receive  the  soul  of  the  individ- 
ual, its  client.  The  soul  appeared  as  a  human-headed 
bird,  called  a  ba,  which  became  prominent  at  the 
death  of  a  man. 

In  order  further  to  insure  the  persistence  of  the 
body  as  a  centre  of  individual  soul  or  spirit-manifesta- 
tion, the  greatest  care  was  taken  to  preserve  it.  It 
was  carefully  embalmed  and  mummified  and  laid  in 
a  coffin,  on  its  side,  like  a  sleeper.  There  were  several 
coffins,  one  inside  the  other.  In  the  tomb  were  placed 
all  utensils  that  a  living  person  could  possibly  need, 
together  with  vessels  for  food  and  water,  weapons  and 
toilet  articles.  The  tomb  was  usually  a  large  burial 
chamber,  or  a  series  of  chambers,  simple  at  first  but 
more  elaborate  in  later  times.  In  fact,  some  con- 
tained as  many  as  thirty-one  chambers,  in  many  of 
which  were  statues  of  the  dead.  The  tomb,  for  roy- 
alty, reached  its  highest  development  in  the  great 
pyramids  of  the  Old  Kingdom. 

In  order  to  insure  proper  attention  in  the  future 
world,  as  in  this,  it  became  customary  to  bury  with  the 
body  of  the  deceased  a  number  of  little  figures,  called 
Shawabti,  whose  chief  duty  was  to  answer  for  their 
client  during  the  trial  of  judgment  before  the  forty- 
two  divine  judges.  Besides  these,  rolls  of  papyrus 
containing  prayers  were  included  in  the  tomb,  as  well 
as  protective  amulets  to  guard  against  malignant 
spirits. 


70  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

The  most  important  ceremony  connected  with 
burial  was  the  opening  of  the  eyes,  ears,  mouth,  and 
nose  of  the  deceased.  This  ceremony  guaranteed  life 
to  the  body,  and  made  it  possible  as  the  home  of  the 
ha.  After  burial  the  greatest  care  was  expended  on 
the  preservation  of  the  body  and  on  the  needs  of  the 
soul-life.  Xot  only  were  great  tombs  erected,  but 
they  were  endowed,  and  priests  were  hired  in  per- 
petuity to  offer  the  proper  sacrifices,  serving  not  only 
as  food  for  the  dead,  but  also  as  sacramental  gifts, 
for  the  dead  were  divine  and  demanded  such  atten- 
tions as  were  bestowed  upon  the  greater  deities. 

Two  great  systems  of  thought  as  to  the  life  after 
death  grew  up  and  developed  side  by  side  in  Egypt. 
They  were  in  the  main  distinct,  but  in  much  detail 
they  became  one.  It  is  not  always  possible  to  say 
with  certainty  what  is  characteristic  of  one  and  what 
of  the  other.  The  two  systems  correspond  to  what 
we  have  in  solar  religion  and  Osirian  religion,  or 
official  worship  and  popular  worship.  We  shall  deal 
with  the  solar  conception  of  life  after  death  first. 

In  the  earliest  times,  the  dead  was  believed  to  in- 
habit the  cemetery,  where  it  prowled  about  and  was 
more  or  less  malignant.  Comparatively  later  the  idea 
arose  that  the  soul  of  the  dead  departs  to  a  distant  and 
blessed  realm,  and  that  the  body  must  be  preserved 
with  all  its  physical  faculties  as  a  home  for  the  soul. 
With  this  in  view,  food  and  drink  were  necessary, 
besides  all  other  material  necessities.  It  was  the  duty 
of  relatives  left  behind,  and  especially  of  the  son,  to 
see  that  these  needs  were  supplied.  Endowed  tombs 
were  erected  and  statues  were  set  up  to  aid  the  de- 


The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt  71 

ceased  in  his  soul  life.  The  soul  itself,  according  to 
the  Pyramid  Texts,  either  took  up  his  abode  in  a 
star,  whence  he  came  occasionally  to  visit  the  body, 
or  associated  himself  with  the  sun-god,  even  being 
absorbed  into  that  great  deity.  This  latter  idea  un- 
derlay the  conception  of  a  pyramid,  as  the  abode  of 
the  body  of  the  deceased,  for  the  pyramid  was  the 
symbol  of  the  sun-god. 

The  realm  of  the  dead  according  to  the  solar  relig- 
ion was  situated  in  the  east  of  the  sky,  where  there 
was  a  great  lake  called  the  Lily-lake.  The  means  of 
approach  was  by  a  ladder,  which  symbolized  the  rays 
of  the  sun.  We  have  a  very  good  picture,  in  the  case 
of  pharaoh  Uni  of  the  Old  Kingdom,  of  the  way  in 
which  the  deceased  enters  heaven.  Uni  becomes 
associated  with  Ea,  serves  as  a  priest  before  him, 
voyages  across  the  sky  with  him  in  his  barques,  and 
actually  becomes  identified  with  that  mighty  god. 
In  heaven  there  is  abundance  of  all  that  man  may 
need — food  and  clothing — and  the  tree  of  life.  The 
solar  hereafter  is  also  depicted  by  the  mortuary  texts 
of  the  Feudal  age. 

The  oldest  Osirian  view  of  life  after  death  was  ex- 
ceedingly forbidding.  It  was  associated  with  the  idea 
of  a  subterranean  kingdom  of  the  dead,  connected 
with  Osiris  at  Abydos.  After  his  murder  by  Set, 
Osiris,  whose  parts  were  assembled  by  Horus,  became 
king  of  the  Dewat,  that  is,  the  underworld,  a  place 
originally  identified  with  the  lower  heaven.  This 
kingdom  was  in  the  West,  and  was  at  first  presided 
over  by  the  old  mortuary  god  Khenti-Amentiu,  with 
whom  Osiris  was  identified.     At  first  it  was  believed 


72  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

that  each  king  became  one  with  Osiris  at  death,  later 
this  was  the  privilege  of  every  man. 

At  death  the  king  either,  as  Horus,  marched  forth 
from  Buto  and  entered  the  Dewat,  the  way  being 
prepared  by  Upwawet;  or,  identified  with  Osiris,  he 
proceeded  to  the  Dewat,  where  he  occupied  the  divine 
throne,  becoming  king  of  the  dead,  and  receiving  the 
filial  duties  of  Horus,  just  like  Osiris.  In  this  latter 
case  he  became  a  mighty  god,  often  confused  with  Ea 
in  the  minds  of  the  worshippers.  This  is  where  the 
two  systems  of  theology  came  into  contact  with  each 
other  and  were  often  confused. 

The  Dewat,  or  underworld,  was  divided  into  twelve 
great  dark  divisions,  where  was  the  abode  of  many 
and  dangerous  demons.  Each  division  was  traversed 
by  the  dead  in  an  hour.  Great  gates  separated  one 
division  from  another,  at  which  were  stationed  watch- 
ers and  fiery  serpents.  Innumerable  dangers  and 
ordeals,  mostly  of  a  physical  or  intellectual  nature, 
were  to  be  encountered,  against  which  magic  was  the 
chief  weapon.  In  order  to  be  assured  of  a  safe 
journey  through  this  strange  intermediate  place,  on 
the  way  to  the  abode  of  Osiris,  a  chart  was  made  and 
recorded  in  the  "Book  of  Two  Ways"  (in  reference  to 
land  and  water).  Other  works  were  composed  as 
guides,  the  contents  of  which,  with  the  light  of  the 
presence  of  the  gods,  gave  assurance  of  a  safe  journey. 
When,  later,  solar  and  Osirian  theology  became  fused, 
the  soul  was  represented  as  joining  the  boat  of  Ra 
and  sailing  through  the  hours  of  day  and  night. 

With  the  confusion  of  the  solar  and  Osirian  ideas 
of  the  future,  Osiris  was  transferred  to  heaven   (as 


The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt  73 

early  as  the  Pyramid  Texts),  where  he  became  lord 
of  the  sky.  With  this  change  of  view,  the  king  is 
represented  as  being  announced  and  introduced  to 
Osiris  in  the  sky  just  as  he  was  to  Ea,  and  joined  the 
"imperishable  stars"  in  the  celestial  heaven. 

This  solarization  of  Osiris  was  the  work  of  the 
priests,  who  in  turn  were  influenced  by  popular 
theology,  which  suffered  a  great  deal  of  Osirianization. 
Thus  the  Pyramid  Texts,  the  Ladder  of  the  Sky,  the 
Four  Horses,  the  Solar  Ferryman,  and  the  Two 
Floats  of  Reeds  became  Osirianized.  The  Imperish- 
able Stars  became  the  "followers  of  Osiris",  and  the 
pyramids,  the  symbols  of  the  sun,  were  identified  with 
Osiris.  But  all  this  was  easy  of  accomplishment,  be- 
cause of  the  great  amount  of  similarity  of  repre- 
sentation, and  especially  because  the  old  mortuary 
god  of  Abydos,  Khenti-Amentiu,  with  whom  Osiris 
was  identified,  as  lord  of  the  dead,  was  at  first  a  solar 
deity.  Thus  Ea  was  to  a  large  extent  Osirianized 
and  Osiris  was  greatly  solarized.  This  process 
naturally  led  to  much  confusion,  the  king  being  often 
represented  as  Ea  and  often  as  Osiris. 

There  were  many  attempts  at  harmonizing  the  two 
great  theologies.  As  a  result,  Osiris  was  often  trans- 
ferred to  the  sky,  while  Ea  received  the  dead  and 
presented  them  to  Osiris.  But  there  were  insuper- 
able difficulties,  for  the  two  theologies  did  not  exhaust 
all  the  theories  about  the  future.  There  was  the 
Plain  of  Aalu,  at  first  in  the  Delta,  later  in  the  West, 
towards  which  the  different  souls  of  a  man,  each 
taking  his  own  path,  set  out  to  seek  Osiris,  where  they 
were   all   united.      To   reach   that   place   they   were 


74  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

obliged  to  negotiate,  according  to  one  idea,  fifteen  or 
twenty-one  gates,  and,  according  to  another,  eight 
great  nets  spread  for  their  discomfort. 

The  result  of  these  different  theories  about  the 
future  was  the  creation  of  much  confusion  and  con- 
tradiction. The  Egyptians  were  exceedingly  con- 
servative without  being  systematic.  They  were  un- 
able to  forget,  and  according  as  new  ideas  arose,  they 
were  preserved  side  by  side  with  old  ones  without 
modification  and  without  any  attempt  at  systematiza- 
tion  and  still  without  much  consciousness  of  in- 
congruity. 

In  spite  of  all  this  uncertainty  as  to  just  what  was 
going  to  happen  in  the  future,  and  as  to  just  what 
the  future  would  be  like,  the  Egyptians  possessed  and 
cultivated  the  attribute  common  to  all  races,  which  is 
the  salvation  of  humanity — hope.  It  is  one  of  the 
great  endowments  of  the  human  soul  that  it  is  always 
too  large  for  its  position,  that  it  never  finds  its  ade- 
quate repose  and  satisfaction  here  in  this  world,  but 
is  empowered  to  anticipate  and  appropriate  a  better 
future.  A  better  time  coming  is  the  ideal  which  the 
most  miserable  cannot  be  denied,  and  which  the  most 
favoured  needs.  Youth  looks  forward  to  success,  but 
when  this  hope  fades  away,  another  succeeds  it.  We 
are  accustomed  to  say,  "as  long  as  there  is  life  there 
is  hope",  but  the  reverse  is  just  as  true,  "as  long  as 
there  is  hope  there  is  life".  We  can  let  the  sun  go 
down  in  darkness  as  long  as  we  can  turn  and  wait  for 
its  rising  again  in  the  east.  In  this  the  Egyptian 
was  an  expert.  He  could  bear  disappointment,  ad- 
versity, suffering,  because  he  had  an  undying  hope  for 


The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt  75 

better  things.  His  eyes  were  ever  turned  on  the 
future.  There  were  his  gods,  there  were  those  whom 
he  had  loved  in  the  past,  there  were  the  fulfilments  of 
all  his  ideals  and  aspirations,  his  hopes  and  desires. 
No  individual  ever  thought  and  dreamed  and  lived 
in  the  future  as  did  the  ancient  Egyptian.  It  was 
his  great  ideal.  N"or  did  it  render  him  unduly  vision- 
ary and  impractical.  On  the  contrary  it  served  as  a 
stimulus  to  better  living  and  higher  thinking  in  this 
life.  The  condition  of  future  bliss  was  present  in- 
tegrity; the  rewards  of  the  hereafter  were  contingent 
upon  the  accomplishments  of  the  present ;  and  present 
human  helpfulness  and  divine  piety  were  the  best 
guarantee  of  the  eternal  favour  of  the  gods. 

After  death  came  the  judgment.  The  character  of 
the  judgment  and  the  judgment  scene  is  so  closely 
allied  to  Osirian  ideas  that  its  origin  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  popular  religion,  although  it  was  in  some  ways 
influenced  by  Ea  theology. 

Judgment  took  place  in  the  presence  of  Osiris, 
sitting  upon  his  throne.  The  deceased  was  led  in  by 
Anubis,  with  Isis  and  Nephthys  following.  There 
were  there  forty-two  judges  or  assessors,  in  the 
presence  of  whom  the  deceased  denied  forty-two  mis- 
deeds. A  large  pair  of  balances  was  there  with  the 
heart  of  the  deceased  and  the  feather  of  the  goddess 
of  Truth,  Maat,  one  in  each  of  the  pans.  Thoth 
stood  ready  to  read  the  balances,  and  carried  a  book 
in  which  to  record  the  findings.  A  large  female 
hippopotamus  was  there  also,  prepared  to  devour  the 
deceased  should  he  be  found  wanting.  In  case  of 
justification  the  deceased  was  permitted  to  proceed  to 


76  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

the  Fields  of  Aalu,  or  he  was  received  into  the  bark 
of  Ka. 

The  one  hundred  and  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  the  Dead  in  which  is  preserved  the  commonly 
called  "Confession",  but  which  is  not  a  "confession" 
at  all,  enumerates  a  series  of  crimes  of  which  the 
deceased  declares  himself  guiltless.  They  were  sins 
of  violence,  deceit,  sexual  immorality,  and  made  up 
a  declaration  of  innocence.  The  deceased  then  goes 
on  to  declare  his  moral  worthiness,  which  indicates  a 
keen  and  penetrating  sense  of  moral  distinctions. 
The  judgment  was  believed  to  be  a  real  test  of  a 
man's  moral  worth,  and  only  by  successful  acquittal 
could  a  man  hope  for  the  best.  The  test  is  eloquent 
of  the  conscientiousness  of  the  average  Egyptian,  and 
shows  how  intimately  the  future  was  believed  to  be 
bound  up  with  the  present,  and  how  present  conduct, 
in  its  consequences,  reached  forward  into  the  future. 

A  good  deal  of  nonsense  has  been  said  and  written 
about  transmigration  in  Egyptian  religious  thought, 
all  of  which  is  based  upon  Herodotus'  mistaken  idea. 
Spells  were  believed  to  be  capable  of  enabling  a  man 
to  assume  the  form  of  a  lotus,  or  of  an  ibis,  or  a  heron, 
or  serpent,  or  of  the  god  Ptah,  or  of  "anything  that 
he  wished".  Of  this  we  read  a  good  deal  in  the  Book 
of  the  Dead  and  in  the  Mortuary  texts.  But  there 
is  no  evidence  here  of  transmigration,  for  the  change 
is  wrought  by  magic,  and  is  not  permanent.  In  the 
"Tale  of  Two  Brothers",  Bata's  soul  passes  into  a  bull, 
but  that  is  not  transmigration,  for  the  purpose  is  for 
hiding  and  escaping,  and  is  not  meant  to  be  perma- 
nent.    Herodotus  bases  his  argument  upon  the  story 


The  Idea  of  the  Future  in  Egypt  11 

that  the  souls  of  Ra,  Ptah,  and  Khnum  existed  in  the 
chaos  egg,  but  that  proves  nothing  about  transmigra- 
tion of  souls.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  to  prove 
the  theory  in  Egyptian  literature. 

There  was  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  early  Egypt- 
ian about  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  Osiris  had 
died,  or  was  killed,  and  rose  again,  so  each  and  every 
Egyptian  would  do  likewise.  He  would  arise  not  as 
a  shadowy  ghost,  but  in  physical  reality.  For  just 
as  the  limbs  of  Osiris  were  collected  together  by  the 
gods,  so  each  individual  Egyptian  would  arise  in  full 
possession  of  his  mind  and  body,  for  it  is  said  of  the 
dead  in  the  Pyramid  Texts,  "they  possess  their  heart, 
they  possess  their  mind,  they  possess  their  feet,  they 
possess  their  mouth,  they  possess  their  arms,  they 
possess  all  their  limbs."  This  belief  persisted  from 
the  earliest  to  the  latest  times. 

Nor  was  there  less  faith  in  the  certainty  of  a  real 
immortality.  The  dead  was  assured  of  a  future  life 
to  which  there  is  no  indication  of  any  limit.  "Even 
as  Osiris  lives,  he  also  will  live ;  even  as  Osiris  is  not 
dead,  he  will  not  die ;  even  as  Osiris  is  not  destroyed, 
he  also  will  not  be  destroyed."  So  reads  a  passage 
in  the  Pyramid  Texts.  The  dead  will  arise  to  a  joy- 
ous and  apparently  endless  life,  into  which  they  will 
enter  "not  as  dead",  but  "as  living". 

The  Egyptian  idea  of  immortality  was  that  of  a 
real  personal  persistence  beyond  the  grave :  no  mere 
absorption  into  the  infinite  as  a  river  loses  itself  in 
the  sea;  no  mere  living  in  posterity  as  an  indefinite 
influence,  without  individuality  and  consciousness; 
but  an  immortality  of  the  personal  soul,  conscious  of 


78  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

its  past  and  hopeful  of  its  future.  The  Egyptians' 
conviction  of  a  personal  immortality  grew  up  as  a 
part  of  their  very  life,  and  was  interwoven  with  all 
of  their  loftiest  aims  and  motives,  and  became  to  them 
a  glad  and  triumphant  certainty.  They  believed  in  it 
not  because  they  were  able  or  desirous  of  proving  it, 
but  because  it  was  to  them  the  natural  continuation 
of  the  present,  the  reward  which  their  gods  held  in 
keeping  for  them.  Death  was  to  them  not  as  much 
a  separation  as  a  release  from  unreality  to  reality. 
The  great  real,  desirable  world  was  where  the  gods 
lived,  and  as  gods  and  men  were  so  closely  related, 
the  natural  outcome  of  things  would  be  their  eternal 
association  and  companionship.  It  was  not  conceit 
or  presumption,  but  a  belief  in  the  natural  fitness  of 
things.  Immortality  was  fraught  with  neither  doubt 
nor  questioning  for  the  Egyptian;  it  was  a  certainty, 
which  needed  no  demonstration. 


VII 


THE  IDEA  OF  MORALITY  IN  EGYPT 

The  morals  of  an  ancient  people  can  be  discovered 
only  by  a  study  of  their  extant  literature.  This  is 
especially  true  of  the  early  Egyptians,  who  have  left 
us  no  system  of  morals. 

In  studying  the  morals  of  any  people  of  the  past, 
care  must  be  taken  not  to  read  into  their  language  the 
content  of  our  modern  moral  phraseology.  The  moral 
ideas  of  any  people  are  to  be  defined  by  their  concep- 
tion of  goodness,  purity,  faithfulness,  truth,  justice, 
and  righteousness,  on  the  one  hand ;  and  on  the  other, 
by  that  of  evil,  impurity,  faithlessness,  falsehood,  in- 
justice, and  wickedness.  But  what  did  the  Egyptians 
understand  by  all  these  things  ?  We  must  determine 
what  those  acts  were  which  the  Egyptian  called 
"good",  and  those  which  he  called  "bad".  We  shall 
find  that  his  conscience,  or  inherited  and  self-de- 
veloped power  of  moral  distinctions,  classified  things 
as  "right"  or  "wrong".  But  things  were  "right"  and 
"wrong"  according  as  they  were  agreeable  or  contrary 
to  accepted  custom  or  law.  Thus,  a  knowledge  of  the 
customs  and  laws  of  Egypt  will  reveal  to  us  its  state 
of  morals. 

79 


80  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

We  must  also  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the 
ideal  and  the  real.  It  is  helpful  to  know  the  ideals 
of  a  people ;  but  a  people  is  commended  or  condemned, 
as  a  rule,  according  as  their  actual  practices  are  com- 
paratively high  or  low.  Nor  must  individual  re- 
sponsibility be  confused  with  national  responsibility. 
In  estimating  national  morals,  our  criterion  must  be 
our  own  modern  Western  civilization ;  but  in  estimat- 
ing individual  morals,  our  criterion  must  be  the  laws 
and  customs  of  the  time  and  place  under  considera- 
tion. The  individual  Egyptian  must  be  condemned 
or  commended  in  the  light  of  his  own  civilization. 
The  moral  determinants  of  the  time  must  also  be  kept 
clearly  in  mind,  such  as  the  ideas  of  heredity,  environ- 
ment, and  social  tradition. 

In  Egypt  the  family  was  the  social  unit.  It  had 
its  prototype  in  the  divine  family  of  Osiris,  the  normal 
family  consisting  in  the  marriage  of  one  man  with 
one  woman,  and  possessed  of  many  children.  There 
were  apparently  no  degrees  of  consanguinity  in 
marriage  law;  a  king  often  married  his  sister.  Al- 
though the  normal  marriage  consisted  of  one  man 
and  one  woman,  polygamy  and  concubinage  were  very 
common,  but  polyandry  is  unknown.  The  family 
was  patriarchal,  but  the  father  did  not  possess  the 
same  arbitrary  powers  as  among  early  Semitic  peoples. 
In  fact,  the  wife  seemed  to  equal  the  husband  in 
many  rights.  The  ideal  relationship  between  the  two 
can  be  seen  in  the  story  of  Osiris  and  Isis.  Women 
were  comparatively  free,  could  hold  offices,  become 
sovereign,  and  perhaps  even  priestesses.  There  was, 
however,   a   certain   feeling  that   supreme   rulership 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  81 

belonged  to  the  man,  for  when  Hatshepsut  was  queen 
she  did  all  in  her  power  to  disguise  the  fact  that  she 
was  a  woman,  even  going  to  the  extent  of  wearing  a 
false  beard,  and  referring  to  herself  in  the  third 
person  masculine. 

Filial  love  is  no  more  characteristic  of  modern 
Japanese  than  it  was  of  the  Egyptian.  There  are 
many  bas-reliefs  which  show  the  ideal  relationship 
between  parents  and  children,  and  numbers  of  in- 
scriptions tell  of  the  love  of  parents  for  children  and 
of  children  for  parents.  A  good  son  was  considered 
"the  gift  of  god",  and  a  splendid  thing  was  the 
"obedience  of  an  obedient  son".  Daughters  bore  such 
names  as  "Beauty-comes",  and  sons  often  were  named 
"Riches".  Both  son  and  daughter  could  inherit, 
though  the  son  was  the  natural  heir. 

The  marriage  relationship  could  be  interrupted, 
especially  by  divorce,  but  divorce  was  not  very 
common. 

Egyptian  society  consisted  of  three  classes :  ( 1 )  the 
king  and  nobility;  (2)  lower  officials;  (3)  labourers, 
peasants,  and  slaves.  But  in  the  Middle  Kingdom  a 
Middle  Class  developed  which  remained  down  to  the 
end  of  Egyptian  national  life.  At  the  head  of  the 
social  scale  stood  the  king,  who  was  the  representative 
of  the  gods.  He  was  always  highly  idealized,  being 
the  "benefactor"  of  the  people,  the  "lord  of  truth", 
and  the  "utterer  of  justice".  There  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  Egyptians  had  cause  to  believe  in 
the  integrity  and  righteousness  of  their  kings,  al- 
though the  latter  naturally  did  not  always  live  up  to 
their  reputation. 


82  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

The  state's  relation  to  the  king  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  term  "Emperor-worship".  The  pharaoh  was 
the  son  of  the  gods,  was  a  great  and  good  god  himself, 
and  as  such  was  worshipped  as  any  other  god.  It 
seemed  to  be  the  highest  ambition  in  the  life  of  an 
Egyptian  to  serve  his  sovereign  in  a  worthy  manner. 
Nor  was  the  matter  a  one-sided  affair,  for  the  king 
protected  his  subjects.  Royal  decrees  were  issued 
from  time  to  time,  responding  to  demands  by  the 
people,  which  show  a  marked  tendency  towards 
democracy. 

Individual  to  individual  was  usually  fair  and  just, 
and  superior  to  inferior  was  most  considerate.  The 
duty  of  superior  to  inferior  could  not  be  better  il- 
lustrated than  by  quoting  a  part  of  the  inscription  on 
the  tomb  of  a  nobleman  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty:  "I 
gave  bread  to  all  the  hungry  of  the  Cerastes-mountain ; 
I  clothed  him  who  was  naked  therein.  I  filled  its 
shores  with  large  cattle,  and  its  lowlands  with  small 
cattle.  ...  I  never  oppressed  one  in  possession  of 
his  property  so  that  he  complained  of  me  because  of 
it  to  the  god  of  my  city;  (but)  I  spake,  and  told  that 
which  was  good;  never  was  there  one  fearing  because 
of  one  stronger  than  he,  so  that  he  complained  be- 
cause of  it  to  the  god".  Henku  thus  considered  it 
liis  first  duty  to  feed  the  hungry,  clothe  the  naked, 
defend  the  people's  rights,  and  to  do  that  which  was 
good.  In  short,  his  role  was  that  of  protector  and 
defender  to  those  dependent  upon  him.  Nor  is  this 
an  isolated  example.  There  were  many  other  nobles 
in  all  periods  of  Egyptian  history  who  boasted  of  the 
same  good  deeds.     This  may  indicate  a  great  deal  of 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  83 

self-praise  and  boasting,  but  it  is  also  an  indication 
of  what  the  ideal  relationship  was. 

The  subordinate  was  respectful,  submissive,  and 
obedient  to  his  superior,  but  the  nobleman's  ideal  was 
to  conduct  himself  in  such  a  manner  as  to  elicit  his 
inferior's  love.  Nezemib  caused  to  be  inscribed  upon 
his  tomb  the  assertion  that  he  "was  one  beloved  of  the 
people",  that  he  had  "never  taken  the  property  of  any 
man  by  violence",  and  that  he  "was  a  doer  of  that 
which  pleased  all  men". 

To  the  Egyptian  the  "Law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect", 
and  the  king  as  the  representative  of  the  gods  was 
the  source  of  all  law  and  justice.  A  guarantee  of 
justice  was  called  "the  king's  writings",  and  decrees 
issued  by  the  king  were  law,  not  to  be  forgotten.  The 
king's  representative  in  the  administration  of  law  was 
the  judge,  whose  patron  deity  was  Maat,  goddess  of 
truth.  Royal  charters  and  legal  contracts  were  very 
common,  and  the  law  was  continually  appealed  to. 
Legal  trials  were  given  all  men,  and  a  legal  hearing 
was  always  guaranteed.  Justice  was  widely  recog- 
nized, and  to  be  just  was  the  source  of  much  pride. 
The  great  judges  of  Egypt  never  tired  of  the  boast: 
"Xever  did  I  judge  two  brothers  in  such  a  way  that 
a  son  was  deprived  of  his  paternal  possessions."  The 
law  applied  to  all,  great  as  well  as  small,  official  as 
well  as  peasant.  Violence  was  condemned,  and  dis- 
obedience punished.  The  punishment,  however,  was 
often  extraordinarily  severe.  In  one  case,  the  violator 
of  a  royal  decree  was  to  be  sacrificed  upon  a  block. 

Property  rights  could  be  held  by  anyone,  the 
monarchs  boasting  that  they  "never  oppressed  one  in 


84  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

possession  of  his  property",  or  that  they  "never  took 
the  property  of  any  man  by  violence".  Property 
could  be  acquired  in  various  ways,  but  especially  by 
inheritance,  women  having  as  much  rights  as  men  in 
this  respect.  It  was  subject  to  taxation,  but  certain 
exemptions  were  made,  especially  in  the  case  of 
religious  estates. 

The  Egyptians  were  not  a  great  commercial  people. 
Their  national  boundaries  were  such  as  to  shut  them 
off  from  free  access  to  foreign  countries.  But  in 
domestic  relations  their  commerce  was  highly  organ- 
ized on  a  legal  foundation.  Legal  contracts  were 
common  in  business  matters,  which  were  drawn  up  in 
a  methodical  way,  and  were  sealed  and  signed. 

Labourers  were  of  two  classes,  free  and  enslaved. 
All  men  were  servants  of  the  king,  but  there  were 
those  whose  part  it  was  to  do  menial  work,  but  who 
were  free  agents.  But  over  against  the  freeman  was 
the  slave.  His  condition  of  slavery  may  have  been 
captivity  or  purchase.  Captives  were  often  taken  and 
used  as  slaves.  They  are  represented  on  many  in- 
scriptions from  the  earliest  to  the  latest  times.  In 
the  transfer  of  property,  slaves  were  included  as  well 
as  cattle.     They  were  thus  acquired  by  purchase. 

In  social  life  there  is  always  a  certain  difference 
between  the  morals  of  the  ruling  classes  and  that  of 
the  masses.  In  Ptah-Hotep  we  have  the  former,  and 
in  the  "Complaint  of  the  Peasant"  we  have  the  latter. 
But  the  distinction  cannot  always  be  drawn  with 
certainty. 

Beginning  with  the  Middle  Kingdom  a  great  ad- 
vance was  made  in  the  conception  of  social  morality. 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  85 

Men  began  to  realize  that  the  welfare  of  the  state 
depends  upon  just  social  conditions,  and  serious  efforts 
were  made  to  set  right  certain  social  wrongs.  We 
have  echoes  of  this  movement  in  the  "Admonitions  of 
an  Egyptian  Sage",  the  "Eloquent  Peasant",  "Ptah- 
Hotep",  the  "Life  of  Rekhmara",  and  other  similar 
writings.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that  social  condi- 
tions were  hopeless.  In  fact,  it  is  a  hopeful  sign 
that  men  were  not  satisfied  with  the  present,  but  al- 
ways striving  for  better  things.  The  Egyptian  Sage, 
a  priest  of  Heliopolis,  calls  for  a  reform  of  society, 
and  pictures  an  ideal  future  with  an  ideal  ruler;  the 
Eloquent  Peasant  shows  that  the  norm  of  just  treat- 
ment lies  in  the  hands  of  the  official,  and  makes  an 
appeal  to  the  Grand  Steward  and  to  the  pharaoh  him- 
self as  the  source  of  all  justice ;  Ptah-Hotep  inculcates 
gentleness,  moderation,  and  discretion ;  and  Rekhmara 
shows  that  the  greatest  source  of  royal  stability  and 
authority  is  social  justice,  his  teaching  being  dis- 
tinctly religious  in  tone.  These  men  all  preached 
a  gospel  of  righteousness  and  social  justice.  They 
appealed  not  only  to  the  present,  but  also  to  the 
future.  And  the  appeal  was  made  especially  to  the 
individual. 

It  is  hard  to  find  in  any  ancient  literature  so  much 
evidence  of  a  moral  consciousness  as  in  these  writings 
of  the  Middle  Kingdom  in  Egypt.  Moral  thought 
was  thoroughly  individualized,  and  the  eyes  of  men 
were  turned  in  upon  themselves.  Nor  did  this 
tendency  to  self-contemplation  and  self-examination 
end  with  the  Middle  Kingdom.  As  the  Book  of  the 
Dead   shows,   in   its   one   hundred   and   twenty-fifth 


86  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

chapter,  the  Egyptians  of  later  centuries  as  well  were 
a  people  much  given  to  moral  musings,  and  had  de- 
veloped a  sensitiveness  in  moral  matters  that  was 
quite  remarkable. 

The  Egyptians  were  a  peace-loving  people,  a  fact  to 
which  Strabo  bears  witness.  In  a  series  of  hymns 
addressed  to  the  Diadem  of  the  pharaoh,  and  which 
has  been  assigned  to  the  period  previous  to  the  Middle 
Kingdom,  the  ideal  of  the  country  is  represented  as 
decidedly  peaceful.  The  idea  of  peace  is  repeated 
again  and  again,  and  seems  to  mean  not  merely  do- 
mestic tranquility  but  peace  in  the  widest  and  most 
general  sense. 

The  Egyptians  as  well  as  other  peoples,  however, 
had  their  wars.  The  ideal  divine  king  of  Egypt, 
Horus,  was  known  as  the  "Smiter  of  the  Barbarians". 
At  the  end  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  the  Egyptians 
were  forced  by  a  cruel  experience  to  devote  themselves 
very  assiduously  to  the  arts  of  war.  The  Hyksos 
with  their  horses  had  subjugated  Egypt  and  remained 
in  control  until  the  time  of  Ahmose  I.  War  became, 
after  this  time,  much  more  popular,  and  was  for  some 
men  a  profession.  But  at  all  periods  it  was  con- 
sidered a  sacred  and  holy  undertaking,  for  it  was  con- 
ducted for  the  gods,  in  whose  names  all  wars  were 
waged.  On  palettes  and  monuments  which  depict 
warfare,  the  symbols  of  the  gods  always  find  a  place. 
The  enemies  of  Egypt  were  the  enemies  of  Egypt's 
gods,  and  against  them  war  was  a  work  of  piety,  and 
their  death  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. 

There  was  never  any  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
Egyptians  to   confuse   the   rights   of  the  gods  with 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  87 

those  of  the  king.  They  rendered  to  the  pharaoh  his 
dues,  but  they  never  forgot  their  gods.  The  gods 
were  ever  with  them.  They  loved  to  think  of  their 
gods  as  the  source  of  all  truth,  righteousness,  and 
justice.  Horus  was  the  "lord  of  truth";  Ra  was  the 
"great  god  of  truth" ;  Osiris  was  the  "lord  of  truth" ; 
one  god  was  called  the  "expeller  of  deceit",  and  a 
queen  was  named  "Truth  is  of  Apis";  the  daughter 
of  Ra  was  the  goddess  of  truth  and  righteousness; 
and  truth  was  personified  as  the  goddess  Maat.  The 
gods  were  the  protectors  of  nobles  and  peasants,  of 
rich  and  poor,  great  and  small.  They  were  the  object 
of  their  people's  worship,  and  although  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  magic  mingled  with  religion,  there  was 
also  a  great  deal  of  discriminating  adoration. 

The  gods  were  many  and  varied  in  ability.  They 
were  anthropomorphically  conceived,  and  were  par- 
takers of  imperfections.  A  great  deal  of  their  wor- 
ship was  ceremonial  and  ritualistic,  but  the  purely 
moral  elements  were  not  lacking.  Human  sacrifices 
may  have  been  offered  in  early  days,  but  in  later 
times  there  is  no  evidence  of  it.  The  cakes  in  form 
of  men  offered  to  the  gods  are  no  proof  of  this  custom, 
nor  is  it  certain  that  the  burning  of  human  beings  as 
reported  by  Plutarch  is  to  be  taken  as  sacrifices. 

The  piety  of  the  Egyptians  cannot  be  questioned. 
They  were  pious  by  nature,  and  never  till  compar- 
atively later  times  developed  a  sceptic  spirit.  How- 
ever, in  the  feudal  age,  the  "Song  of  the  Harper" 
shows  that  the  sceptical  spirit  was  beginning  to 
make  itself  felt.  But  it  was  rather  a  scepticism  about 
the  future  than  about  the  gods.     The  vanity  of  riches 


88  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

is  spoken  of,  just  as  is  the  uselessness  of  worrying 
about  the  future.  But  the  existence  of  the  gods  is 
never  denied.  The  Misanthrope  of  the  Middle  King- 
dom contains  no  thought  of  the  gods,  but  it  does  not 
deny  them.  A  new  spirit  arose  in  the  Middle  King- 
dom, but  it  can  hardly  be  called  scepticism  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  term.  The  gods  were  always 
taken  for  granted,  and  their  sway  in  the  world  was 
unquestioned.  The  scepticism  of  these  writers  is 
rather  that  of  the  Old  Testament  Ecclesiastes,  a 
doubting  of  the  providence,  or  the  interest,  of  the 
gods  in  the  affairs  of  men. 

Before  the  Middle  Kingdom,  the  individual  did 
not  loom  as  large  as  at  later  times.  Egyptian  in- 
dividualism may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  the  Middle 
Kingdom.  Yet  in  the  Old  Kingdom  the  individual 
is  known  to  have  asserted  his  rights.  A  citizen  of 
the  Fifth  Dynasty  made  the  proud  boast,  "Xever  was 
I  beaten  in  the  presence  of  any  official  since  my  birth". 
This  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  average  citizen 
of  the  earlier  periods  was  as  virile  as  the  nobles,  with 
whose  sturdy-looking  statues  we  are  familiar. 

But  the  individual  of  later  times  had  developed  a 
sense  of  personal  right  which  is  remarkable.  The 
Misanthrope  and  the  Eloquent  Peasant  assume  an 
individualism  and  a  sense  of  personal  right  which 
are  eloquent  of  the  independence  of  thought,  and 
action  in  ancient  Egypt.  The  Eloquent  Peasant,  in 
his  dispute  with  his  antagonist,  declared,  "my  ways 
are  good",  i.  e.  "I  have  a  right  to  the  way  I  take"; 
and  the  Misanthrope  demanded  that  each  man  be 
responsible  only  for  his  own  deeds — "sentence  a  man 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  89 

only  for  the  deeds  that  he  has  verily  committed". 
The  Egyptian's  sense  of  truth  and  justice  had 
moulded  him  into  a  stern  critic  of  personal  endeavour 
and  responsibility.  "Thy  tongue  is  the  spring  of  a 
balance,  thy  heart  is  the  weight,  and  thy  two  lips  are 
its  arms",  declared  the  Eloquent  Peasant;  and  Ptah- 
Hotep  said,  "honour  a  man  for  what  he  has  become, 
not  for  what  he  was".  In  keeping  with  this  teaching, 
the  Egyptian  held  himself  to  be  upright,  truthful, 
just,  honest,  frank,  generous,  the  protector  of  widows 
and  orphans,  and  defender  of  the  weak;  and  he  con- 
demned all  the  opposite  vices.  He  respected  the  rights 
of  others,  and  accordingly  condemned  adultery,  rob- 
bery, and  violence,  and  encouraged  the  opposite 
virtues,  and  a  recognition  of  the  rights  of  his  fellow 
men. 

Of  course,  there  were  many  exceptions  to  these  acts 
of  virtue,  so  much  so  that  the  Misanthrope  could  find 
no  justice  in  the  land,  no  satisfaction  in  the  world, 
and  nothing  but  evil  holding  sway.  But  where  there 
are  ideals  there  are  good  intentions,  and  though  "hell 
be  paved  with  good  intentions",  a  good  intention  is 
all  the  difference  between  a  mistake  and  a  crime. 

As  time  went  on  the  individual's  relation  to  the 
gods  became  more  and  more  a  matter  of  heart  and 
conscience ;  social  justice  was  demanded  for  the  future 
as  well  as  for  the  present ;  and  ideals  of  all  kinds  be- 
came exceedingly  pragmatic.  The  maxims  of  Ani 
especially  emphasise  the  need  of  guarding  one's  rep- 
utation, of  avoiding  lusts,  and  of  preferring  the  en- 
durance of  the  future  to  the  uncertainty  of  the 
present.     There  grew  up  a  tendency  to  climb  up  into 


90  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

the  higher  stories  of  human  living,  to  realize  that 
though  the  world  must  be  met  in  its  own  worldly  way, 
man's  head  may  extend  beyond  the  clouds,  and  see  a 
vision  of  higher  things. 

The  Egyptians  ascribed  the  best  they  knew  to  their 
gods.  Hence,  if  we  know  the  character  of  the  acts 
ascribed  to  the  Egyptians'  gods,  we  shall  know  what 
their  moral  ideals  were. 

We  have  learned  that  the  Egyptian  ascribed  to  the 
gods,  primarily,  the  attributes  of  love,  goodness,  right- 
eousness, truth,  and  justice.  But  what  was  his  idea 
of  "love",  "goodness",  etc.?  Did  these  words  con- 
note to  the  Egyptians  what  they  do  to  us?  What 
was  their  moral  content?  So  far  as  we  can  learn 
from  a  study  of  the  original  words,  maat  is  the  name 
of  the  most  important  of  Egypt's  goddesses,  the 
daughter  of  Ra.  Her  symbol  is  the  feather,  which 
appears  in  judgment  scenes  weighed  in  the  balance 
against  the  heart  of  the  deceased.  The  goddess  is 
represented  sometimes  with  bandages  over  her  eyes. 
It  is  evident  from  the  part  played  by  the  feather  in 
judgment  scenes  that  it  represents  the  standard  of 
judgment.  Hence,  it  has  been  rendered  by  the  words 
"law",  "order",  "duty".  The  blindfolded  goddess 
represents  impartiality,  and  hence  maat  has  been  ren- 
dered by  the  words  "truth",  "justice".  Moreover,  the 
ideal  of  all  Egyptian  gods  and  kings  was  anh  n  maat, 
"living  according  to  rule,  or  in  justice".  The  hall  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  dead  was  called  "the  hall  of  the 
two  truths".  The  expression  is  a  very  old  one,  in- 
dicating that  the  Egyptian  believed  in  the  existence 
of  two  truths,  whereby  a  matter  was  looked  at  from 


The  Idea  of  Morality  of  Egypt  91 

both  sides.  The  form  of  the  original  word  is  dual. 
The  word  madt  comes  from  the  verb  mad,  "to  be  real", 
"genuine",  "true".  The  same  word  appears  in  Coptic 
as  ME:MHI.  A  common  divine  and  royal  title  was 
neb  madt,  "lord  of  truth".  The  word  is  used  in  con- 
junction with  hrw,  mad-hrw,  meaning,  "true  of  voice", 
the  <f>o)vTJ  akrjOrjs  of  Plutarch,  or,  "justified".  The 
phrase  referred  to  one,  whether  god  or  man,  who  had 
been  found  worthy,  whether  in  this  world  or  the  next. 
It  was  sometimes  used  in  a  ceremonial  way,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  connoted  to  the  Egyptian  about  what 
the  words  "truth",  "justice",  etc.,  connote  to  us,  e.  g., 
it  would  be  considered  unjust  and  cruel  if  a  citizen 
were  smitten  beside  his  wife  or  a  child  smitten  beside 
its  mother ;  it  was  unjust  to  speak  untruthfully.  The 
early  Egyptian  believed  that  justice  "was  born  before 
strife  of  voice,  blasphemy,  and  conflict  arose";  and 
that  sky  and  earth  were  glad  when  justice  was  done. 
He  believed  his  god  to  be  nationally  just,  that  is, 
impartial  as  far  as  his  people  were  concerned.  The 
pharaoh  was  the  god's  true  representative,  and  each 
man's  virtue  was  a  reflection  of  the  justice  of  the 
pharaoh. 

The  word  nfr,  written  with  a  sign  which  resembles 
a  small  musical  instrument,  meant  originally  "that 
which  is  pleasing".  But  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  it  had  as  well  a  moral  connotation.  For  ex- 
ample, the  monarch  Henku  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty 
causes  those  who  pass  by  his  tomb  to  be  addressed 
thus:  "0  all  ye  people  of  the  Cerastes-Mountain;  0 
ye  great  lords  of  other  nomes,  who  will  pass  by  this 
tomb,  I,  Henku,  tell  good  things."     Then  he  goes  on 


92  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

to  relate  the  "good  things".  He  says :  "I  give  bread 
to  all  the  hungry  ...  I  clothed  him  who  was  naked 
...  I  never  oppressed  one  in  possession  of  his  prop- 
erty ...  I  spake  that  which  was  good,  never  was 
there  one  fearing  because  of  one  stronger  than  he  .  .  . 
I  speak  no  lie,  for  I  was  one  beloved  of  his  father, 
praised  of  his  mother,  excellent  in  character  to  his 
brother,  and  amiable  to  his  sister."  The  definition 
of  "good"  here  is  sufficient  for  any  moralist. 

A  clear  distinction  was  made  between  "good"  and 
"evil".  The  word  for  evil,  dwt,  is  written  with  the 
sign  for  a  mountain,  the  probable  idea  being  that 
"evil"  is  associated  with  a  more  or  less  mysterious 
and  fearful  place,  the  home  of  evil  gods.  "Evil"  is 
that  which  a  bad  god  does,  and  is  that  which  a  bad 
man  does.  The  many  protests  against  having  said 
"aught  evil"  and  their  associations  with  deeds  such 
as  those  described  in  the  preceding  paragraph  are 
eloquent  of  the  content  of  the  Egyptian  word  dwt. 
Moreover,  there  is  another  word  which  is  translated 
"bad",  namely  wsf,  but  which  is  usually  used  in  a 
physical  and  ceremonial  sense.  The  word  dwt  was 
sometimes  used  in  a  ceremonial  way,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  about  its  moral  connotation. 

The  gods  are  the  source  not  only  of  good  and  evil, 
but  also  of  "that  which  is  loved  and  that  which  is 
hated."  The  word  mry,  to  love,  is  contrasted  with 
msdy,  to  hate,  in  the  same  connection  as  the  word  htp, 
peace,  is  contrasted  with  libn,  guilt.  The  content  of 
the  Egyptian  word  mry,  because  of  its  association 
with  "good"  and  its  contrast  with  "hate",  may  truly 
be  said  to  be  a  moral  one. 


The  Idea  of  Morality)  in  Egypt  93 

Trusting  to  the  accuracy  of  the  above  interpreta- 
tion of  these  Egyptian  words,  we  find  that  family 
love,  in  Egypt,  being  moral,  and  being,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  the  family  ideal,  was  the  moral  ideal  of 
Egyptian  family  life.  The  social  ideal  in  Egypt  is 
expressed  by  the  words  "good",  "right",  "just".  Gen- 
erosity, kindness,  goodness,  even  to  animals,  and 
truthfulness,  were  the  admiration  of  the  Egyptian. 
Kheti  II,  an  early  nomarch,  said :  "When  the  land 
was  in  need  I  maintained  the  city  ...  I  allowed 
the  citizen  to  carry  away  for  himself  grain;  and  his 
wife,  the  widow  and  her  son.  I  remitted  all  imposts 
which  I  found  counted  by  my  fathers.  ...  I  was 
kind  to  the  cow  ..."  Justice,  both  legal  and  com- 
mercial, was  demanded,  and  democratic  ideas  were 
beginning  to  develop.  And  the  ideal  was  a  moral 
one,  as  we  have  seen  by  our  study  of  the  connotation 
of  "good",  "right",  and  "just".  The  international 
ideal  was  peace,  and,  being  the  ideal  of  a  peace-loving 
people,  it  was  a  moral  ideal.  The  transcendental 
ideal  was  truth,  justice,  love,  and  obedience.  The 
gods  were  the  source  and  fountain  of  truth  and  jus- 
tice, they  were  models  of  righteousness,  and  they  were 
loved  and  obeyed.  That  they  were  feared,  we  may 
assume ;  that  ceremony  and  pure  magic  played  a  great 
role  in  Egyptian  life,  there  is  no  question;  and  that 
love  and  obedience  often  were  the  result  of  fear,  we 
have  no  reason  to  doubt;  but  that  the  gods  were  the 
champions  of  justice  and  objects  of  love  and  obe- 
dience, we  have  much  reason  to  believe.  The  ideal 
was  unquestionably  moral.  The  personal  ideal  was 
to  be  pleasing  to  one's  family  and  friends,  and  its 


94  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

moral  quality  is  revealed  by  the  association  there- 
with of  excellence  of  character. 

The  ideal  became  to  the  Egyptians  an  existence 
of  moral  worth,  without  flaw,  clear,  pure,  shining, 
golden  worth.  Very  few,  of  course,  ever  attained  the 
ideal.  Very  few  in  any  age  attain  it.  But  the  goal 
is  none  the  less  noble;  the  aspiration  none  the  less 
worthy.  The  actual  accomplishment  may  have  been 
an  issue  of  useful  work ;  for  many  men  whose  thoughts 
have  not  all  been  true,  whose  feelings  have  not  all 
been  noble,  whose  purposes  have  not  all  been  high, 
have  nevertheless  been  the  great  and  good  servants 
of  their  kind.  The  father  of  a  wholesome  family,  the 
head  of  an  honest  business,  the  sowrers  and  reapers, 
manufacturers,  physicians,  jurists,  educators,  and 
priests  may  be  found  here.  There  may  be  few  abso- 
lutely perfect  apples  in  a  barrel,  but  a  great  many 
that  are  useful. 

But  comparatively  few  may  have  attained  even 
this  goal.  Yet  there  would  be  a  place  left  for  those 
who  aim  at  the  highest,  who  mean  well,  who  pursue 
with  a  sad  sincerity  a  lofty  ideal.  The  majority  of 
ourselves  as  well  as  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  belongs 
to  this  class.  The  majority  of  those  whom  we  respect 
and  love  belongs  here.  St.  Paul  places  himself  in 
this  class,  when  he  tells  of  the  goal  to  which  he 
aspires.  And  he  has  hallowed  the  whole  order.  Those 
who  make  no  pretense  to  perfection,  who  are  seekers 
after  truth,  faint  yet  persevering,  baffled  but  not  de- 
feated, like  a  wave  of  the  sea,  ever  renewing  its  on- 
ward march,  these  belong  to  this  class.  The  weather 
is  not  always  fine,  the  sun  rises  every  day  intend- 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  95 

ing  to  shine;  but  the  clouds  gather  and  defeat  him, 
the  storms  beset  him,  and  nullify  his  intentions. 

But  in  Egypt  as  well  as  elsewhere  there  were 
many  who  did  not  even  intend  to  do  better.  There 
are  many  such  in  all  ages  and  in  all  lands.  Yet  they 
must  be  considered,  for  they  all  have  that  inde- 
structible capacity  for  worth,  for  usefulness,  for  pur- 
suit, and  for  service  which  is  characteristic  of  all 
human  beings.  Below  that  no  man  can  sink.  He 
always  has  the  capacity.  It  is  what  differentiates 
him  from  the  brute.  Just  as  an  eye  is  made  to  see 
with,  so  the  soul  is  made  for  worth.  It  is  the  image 
of  God  in  man. 

The  word  for  evil,  discussed  above,  namely  dwt, 
must  be  distinguished  from  another  word  which  is 
usually  translated  "evil",  namely  mr-t,  but  which  in 
reality  means  "sickness"  or  evil  in  the  sense  of  phys- 
ical suffering.  The  former  word,  like  the  word  bta 
which  means  evil  in  the  sense  of  crime,  is  used  in  a 
moral  sense.  In  the  Inscriptions  of  Siut,  it  is  said: 
"the  wicked  saw  it,  .  .  .  he  put  not  eternity  before 
him,  he  looked  not  to  the  future,  he  saw  evil  (bta).'" 
This  "evil"  the  early  Egyptian  opposed  and  hated. 
Again  and  again  in  the  Pyramid  Texts,  one  protests 
against  the  imputation  of  "evil"  to  him,  and  recom- 
mends the  avoidance  of  "evil". 

Another  word  for  "evil"  or  "bad"  is  byn.  Its 
determinative  would  rather  indicate  "meanness". 
The  same  is  true  of  the  word  for  "lie",  namely  grg, 
as  well  as  for  the  general  word  for  "sin",  namely  ysf-t. 
The  fundamental  idea  being  that  sin  in  general,  in- 


%  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

eluding  badness  and  lying,  is  small,  little,  mean.  The 
determinative  is  a  small  bird,  a  sparrow. 

The  Egyptian  considered  moral  evil,  in  general,  to 
consist  in  the  doing  of  wrong  and  in  lying.  In  his 
family  life  these  defects  were  barred  as  thoroughly  as 
possible.  In  social  life,  injustice  was  considered  the 
greatest  moral  evil.  But  harsh  and  needlessly  severe 
punishments  were  tolerated.  In  international  rela- 
tions, war  was  undesirable  although  not  reckoned  evil. 
In  transcendental  affairs,  impiety  was  the  moral  evil, 
although  anthropomorphism,  magic,  and  human  sac- 
rifice were  customary  and  legal,  and  therefore  not 
considered  morally  evil.  In  personal  relations,  im- 
piety and  cruelty  were  especially  condemned. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  had  no  theory  of  the  origin 
of  evil  other  than  that  evil  as  well  as  everything  else 
came  from  the  gods,  who  created  evil  as  well  as  good. 

In  early  Egyptian  literature  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  Egyptians  speculated  about  freewill  and  pre- 
destination. It  would  seem  that  their  anthropo- 
morphism and  Emperor-worship  were  too  real  to 
allow  room  for  any  predestination  ideas.  The  gods 
were  not  far-off  beings,  who,  at  the  beginning  of 
things,  determined  destinies,  but  they  were  ever  pres- 
ent, super-human  beings  who  lived  and  moved  in  the 
present.  Man's  destinies  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
gods,  but  they  were  being  shaped  in  the  present.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  early  Egyptians  be- 
lieved in  the  reality  of  a  freedom  of  the  will.  Their 
many  exhortations  to  avoid  evil  and  to  do  good  show 
that  they  believed  in  the  power  of  making  decisions, 
in  changing  courses  of  action,  and  in  entering  upon 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  97 

new  experiences.  There  was,  therefore,  probably  no 
mental  conflict  about  the  question  of  the  compati- 
bility or  incompatibility  of  freewill  and  predestina- 
tion. They  believed  that  the  gods  created  evil  as  well 
as  good,  but  they  continually  boasted  of  having  them- 
selves avoided  the  one  and  encompassed  the  other. 

By  the  time  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  however,  the 
idea  of  predestination  had  arisen,  and  it  developed 
ever  more  and  more  afterwards.  The  word  shay, 
meaning  "destiny",  now  became  common,  and  the 
idea  is  often  found,  especially  in  the  story  of  Sinuhe, 
where  there  occur  such  expressions  as  "Is  god  igno- 
rant of  what  is  decreed  with  regard  to  him  ?" ;  "Oh ! 
all  ye  gods  who  predestined  that  I  should  flee'7 ;  "The 
god  who  predestined  me  to  this  flight  drew  me".  The 
term  occurs  in  the  inscription  of  the  high-priest 
Merire  of  the  reign  of  Ikhnaton,  and  in  the  inscrip- 
tions of  Amasis.  In  late  Egyptian  times  the  idea  was 
personified  as  the  deity  Shay,  which  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  serpent. 

The  Egyptian  had  progressed  considerably  in  the 
art  of  "bringing  into  captivity  every  thought".  His 
self-consciousness  made  him  aware  of  his  freedom  to 
think,  at  least,  just  what  he  pleased.  No  one  was 
capable  of  enslaving  that  faculty,  and  it  was  just 
that  power  which  had  more  than  anything  else  to  do 
with  the  marvellous  heights  to  which  Egyptian  moral 
thinking  had  attained;  and  not  only  thinking  but 
action  and  accomplishment,  for  thought  is  truly  "the 
rudder  of  human  action",  and  the  seed  of  human 
conduct. 

Moral  sanctions  may  be  external  or  internal.     Ex- 


98  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

ternal  moral  sanctions  are  low,  internal  moral  sanc- 
tions are  high.  In  other  words,  external  sanctions  are 
not  "moral",  while  internal  ones  are.  An  external 
sanction  for  an  action  is  utilitarian  only  and  has 
reference  primarily  to  individual  comfort  and  advan- 
tage. If  a  good  deed  is  done  because  of  public  opin- 
ion, or  in  order  to  be  the  object  of  a  corresponding 
good  deed,  or  to  avoid  punishment,  or  to  be  revered 
by  posterity,  or  to  enjoy  a  good  burial,  or  even  to 
gain  the  assurance  of  prosperity  in  the  next  world, 
it  is  an  external  sanction  and  cannot  be  called  "mor- 
ally" good.  The  early  Egyptian  had  an  unshakable 
faith  in  the  future.  The  resurrection  and  immortal- 
ity of  Osiris  were  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of  assurance 
of  the  resurrection  and  immortality  of  every  indi- 
vidual. But  his  idea  of  the  future  was  that  of  an 
existence  in  the  sky  (Pyramid  Texts)  where  life 
would  be  somewhat  as  it  was  in  this  world.  His 
desire  was  that  it  might  go  well  with  him  in  the 
presence  of  the  great  god,  just  as  in  this  life.  There 
he  would  live  for  ever. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  internal  sanction  for  an 
action  is  moral.  An  internal  sanction  is  the  joy  and 
pleasure  of  doing  what  is  right;  the  doing  of  what 
was  pleasing  to  the  gods  and  to  men.  If  this  be  so, 
the  ancient  Egyptian  figured  on  "moral"  sanctions 
in  action.  He  loved  to  assert  that  he  was  a  "doer  of 
that  which  pleased  all  men";  he  believed  that  he 
would  be  justified  by  his  good  deeds,  and  that  his 
worthiness  was  deemed  valuable  in  the  sight  of  the 
gods;  he  was  confident  that  the  wicked  would  not 
stand  the  moral  test  which  awaited  those  who  passed 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  99 

into  the  next  world;  and  that  even  the  gods  must 
"be  justified  before  Geb".  In  short,  the  Egyptian 
considered  the  triumph  of  the  righteous  cause  of 
Horus  over  Set  as  typical  of  the  triumph  of  right 
over  wrong  in  individual  life,  and  that  the  doing  of 
good  and  justice  was  a  joy  forever.  In  his  own  way, 
he  believed  that  life  depended  upon  character  here 
as  well  as  in  the  future,  where  righteousness  would 
be  built.  The  ferryman  to  the  great  beyond  would 
receive  only  those  of  whom  it  could  be  said  "there 
is  no  evil  which  he  has  done". 

To  sum  up,  it  will  be  well  to  review  the  main 
features  of  Egyptian  morals,  and  to  make  an  estimate 
of  them.  In  making  this  estimate  we  must  carefully 
distinguish  between  the  nation  and  the  individual. 
Our  standard  in  judging  the  nation  must  be  the 
morals  of  our  own  time,  but  the  individual  must  be 
judged  in  the  light  of  the  customs  and  laws  of  an- 
cient Egypt. 

In  our  study  of  the  customs  and  laws  of  the  an- 
cient Egyptians  as  a  nation  we  have  noticed  certain 
defects.  Their  idea  of  God  as  a  rule  was  a  very 
anthropomorphic  one.  Their  gods  were  created  and 
died;  they  married  and  suffered,  and  they  intrigued 
and  were  coerced,  just  like  human  beings.  They  ac- 
cepted human  sacrifices,  and  magic  words  could  con- 
trol them ;  they  were  local  and  national.  The  punish- 
ment for  blasphemy  was  excessive.  In  family  life, 
polygamy  was  permissible,  and  concubinage  was  com- 
mon; in  social  life,  punishments  were  very  severe 
and  slavery  and  forced  labour  were  legal ;  and  in  in- 
ternational affairs,  cruelty  to  captives  was  common. 


100         Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  learned  how  devoted 
the  Egyptians  were  to  their  gods  and  how  sure  they 
were  of  the  love,  righteousness,  truth,  and  justice  of 
the  gods.  The  fundamental  principle  in  family  life 
was  equality  and  love;  in  social  relationships,  justice 
and  kindness  were  always  admired  and  encouraged, 
and  the  growth  of  a  real  spirit  of  democracy  is  notice- 
able; in  international  affairs,  the  ideal  was  peaceful 
trade;  and  in  personal  life,  goodness  was  at  a 
premium. 

The  moral  ideals  of  the  Egyptians  were:  love  and 
equality  in  family  affairs;  truth,  goodness,  and  jus- 
tice in  social  relationship;  peace  in  international 
affairs;  reverence,  love,  and  obedience  in  transcen- 
dental life;  and  goodness  in  personal  relationship. 
These  were  ideals,  which  were,  however,  not  always 
attained.  Moral  evil  was  considered  to  be  the  opposite 
of  these  ideals;  and  a  man  possessed  the  power  of 
choosing  good  or  bad  without  being  predestined  to 
either.  Sanction  for  right  conduct  was  really 
"moral",  although  external  or  utilitarian  motives  were 
not  absent. 

The  individual  Egyptian  judged  in  the  light  of 
his  own  time  and  controlled  by  heredity,  environ- 
ment, and  social  tradition,  has  impressed  us  as  a  per- 
son singularly  devoted  to  his  gods  and  to  his  family 
within  the  limited  sphere  of  his  ideals ;  generous  and 
just  to  his  fellow  men,  although  recognizing  slavery 
and  forced  labour  as  legal  institutions;  peace-loving, 
and  capable  of  being  appealed  to  by  lofty  and  un- 
selfish ideals. 

Finally,  we  have  learned  the  Egyptians  to  have 


The  Idea  of  Morality  in  Egypt  101 

been,  as  a  people,  devoted  to  goodness,  truth,  and 
justice,  though  labouring  under  the  limitations  of 
their  time.  Their  civilization  was  remarkably  high, 
though  limited  by  imperfect  customs,  such  as  polyg- 
amy, slavery,  forced  labour,  excessive  cruelty,  and 
unworthy  ideas  of  divinity.  But  there  is  nothing  to 
show  that  the  Egyptian,  as  an  individual,  controlled 
by  the  customs  and  ideas  of  his  time,  was  lacking 
in  the  conception  of  moral  principles.  On  the  con- 
trary, considering  the  limitations  of  his  time,  he 
cannot  be  too  highly  praised. 

The  high  moral  plane  upon  which  the  Egyptians 
had  raised  themselves  was  the  result  of  moral  con- 
test, the  outcome  of  moral  processes.  Their  long  his- 
tory of  development,  covering  a  period  of  nearly  four 
thousand  years,  was  not  merely  a  "sea  of  glass", 
calm,  clear,  placid,  the  type  of  repose,  rest,  and 
peace ;  but  it  was  "mingled  with  fire",  with  the  power 
of  searching,  testing,  and  consuming.  The  result 
was  a  moral  repose  mingled  with  struggle;  peace, 
rest,  and  achievement  with  the  power  of  trial  and 
suffering  yet  alive  and  working  within  it.  This 
character  would  have  perhaps  continued  until  the 
present  day  had  it  not  been  for  the  overwhelmingly 
disintegrating  forces  of  dead  conservatism  which  had 
caught  Egyptian  civilization  in  its  grip  and  never 
relinquished  its  hold  until  more  progressive  and 
virile  peoples  one  by  one  destroyed  the  very  founda- 
tions upon  which  Egyptian  culture  had  been  built. 
The  conservatism  of  the  Egyptians  themselves,  to- 
gether with  Assyrian  arms,  Persian  conquest,  Greek 
progressiveness,  and  Roman  virility,  was  the  virus 


102  Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 

which  rendered  innocuous  and  powerless  the  most 
magnificent  civilization  of  the  ancient  world. 

Yet  Egypt  is  not  dead — it  never  will  be.  Her 
mighty  culture  has  permeated  the  Western  world ;  her 
literature,  art,  and  architecture  remain  the  wonder  of 
the  ages.  She  still  retains  a  fascination  which  is 
irresistible;  and  year  by  year  devoted  pilgrims  of 
religion,  art,  and  culture  are  proud  to  do  her 
reverence. 


VII 
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"God/'    Hastings'    Encyclopaedia    of    Religion    and 
Ethics. 


INDEX 


Aft,  49- 

Dedun,  21. 

Amon,  14. 

Deification,  13,  20. 

Amon  cycl.,  38f. 

Dewat.  17f. 

Anat,  21. 

Divine  Kings,  19. 

Anher,  15. 

Dwt,  92,  95. 

Animal-headed  deities,  16f. 

Anubis,  75. 

Apis  bull..  16. 

E 

Apop,  17. 

Ap-uat,  15. 

Estimate  of  morals,  99ff. 

Astarte,  20. 

Evil,  origin  of,  96. 

B 

Ba,  49. 

F 

Baal,  21. 
Bes,  21. 

Family,  80f . 

Bta,  95. 

Feasts,  63f. 

Filial  love,  81. 

Byn,  95. 

Foreign  deities.  21. 

C 

Freewill,  96f. 

Chronology 

Old  Kingdom,  1. 

G 

Middle  Kingdom,  2. 

Empire,  2. 

Geb,  12. 

Tanite-Amonite  Period,  3. 

God,  idea  of,  12,  42f. 

Libyan  Period,  3. 

Gods,  in  human  form,  18 

Nubian  Period,  3. 

nature  of,  87. 

Restoration,  3. 

source  of  truth,  87. 

Commerce,  84. 

Grg,  95. 

107 


08 


Religious  and  Moral  Ideas  in  Egypt 


H 

Hapi,  12. 

Hathors,  14. 

Hbn.  92. 

Heliopolis,  theology  of,  38. 

Henotheism,  43. 

Herihor,  35. 

Hn-ntr,  60. 

Homses,  14. 

H tp,  92. 

I 
Ikh,  49. 
Ikhnaton,  29,  41  f. 

Ikhnaton's  theology,  30ff. 
Immortality.  77f. 
Individualism,  88f. 
Isis,  37,  75. 


Judgment,  75f. 
Justice,  83. 


M 

Maat,  20,  90f. 

Magic,  52f,  64f. 

Marriage,  81. 

Mediator,  King  as,  58ff. 

Min.  14,  20. 

Mnevisbull,  16. 

Monotheism,  43ff;  practical. 

28. 
Moral  consciousness,  85f ; 

determinants,  80 ; 

ideal,  93f;  sanctions,  97f. 
Mr-t,  95. 
Mry,  92. 
Msdy,  92. 

N 

Xephthys,  75. 

.V/r?91f. 

Nile,  deified,  17  :  worship,  23. 

Nut,  12. 


Ka,  49. 
Khat,  49. 
Khaybet.  49. 
Khenti-Amentiu,  23. 
Khepri.  37. 
Kherheb,  Gl. 
Klinum,  13. 
Khu,49. 
Kins,  81f. 


Labourers,  84. 
Law,  83. 

Life    after    death,    Osirian. 
7 Iff;  Solar,  70f. 


Offerings,  61. 

Osiris,  15.  23.  27 ;  as  Nile,  23. 


Peace,  86. 

Phoenix,  16. 

Pity,  87f. 

Plain  of  Aalu,  73f . 

Plutarch's  story  of  Osiris,  24. 

Prayer,  66. 

Predestination,  96f. 

Priests.  61f. 

Property.  83f. 

Ptah,  20,  38. 


Index 


109 


Ra,  12,  26. 
Ram,  16. 
Ran,  49. 
Rert,  13. 
Resheph,  21. 
Resurrection,  77. 

S 

Sahu.  49. 
Sakhem,  49. 
Sati,  21. 

Scepticism,  66,  88. 
Sebek, 13. 
Sed — festival,  64. 
Serapis,  36. 
Service,  divine,  60f. 
Shawabti,  69. 
Shay,  97. 
Sin,  53f . 


Slaves,  84. 
Social  morality,  84f. 
Society,  81ff. 
Suffering,  53f. 
Sun-worship,  2 If. 
Sutekh,21. 


Temple,  62f. 
Transmigration.  76f. 
Triads,  39. 


Ysf-t,  95. 

W 

Wab,  61. 
Wag — feast,  64. 
Wars,  86. 
Wsf,  92. 


Pnnceton  Theological  Sem.nary-Speer  Ubrary 


1    1012  01145  3570 


Date  Due 

i 

$ 

